Li Shufu's big bet on Afari smart driving

Author | Zhou Zhiyu

Editor | Zhang Xiaoling

While many automotive giants are still tossing and turning over whether to "give up their souls," Li Shufu's chessboard has seen a series of dazzling pieces fall into place.

In the autumn of 2025, first, the German luxury car giant Mercedes-Benz announced an investment of 1.339 billion yuan to acquire a stake in Afari; a few days later, Li Shufu personally endorsed the 37-year-old AI genius Yin Qi, publicly betting on him with the statement, "The future belongs to Yin Qi."

Li Shufu, known as a "capital hunter" famous for "snake swallowing elephant," is attempting to initiate a high-stakes gamble centered around AI genius Yin Qi in the hottest battlefield of intelligence.

The company named "Afari" is the core lever of his gamble. It was born from the bankrupt Lifan, infused with the AI soul of Megvii, and is expected to "recreate a Huawei car BU." This is undoubtedly a typical and sharp move filled with Li Shufu's personal color: through ingenious capital operations, creating an AI empire within the Geely system that benchmarks and even surpasses "Huawei car BU."

Traditional automotive giants and emerging tech behemoths are pouring everything into this war concerning the future. Li Shufu's gamble on Yin Qi is merely a microcosm of this industry upheaval. A disruptive transformation of the industry has just begun.

The "Explosive" Newcomer

At the end of September, Geely Holding Group Chairman Li Shufu did not hide his admiration for the young man beside him during a press conference. He pointed to the 37-year-old Yin Qi and told the packed audience, "I was searching for smart people nationwide, and by chance, I met Yin Qi. We hit it off immediately." He even rarely sent a fully authorized signal, stating that the future belongs to Yin Qi and expressing hope that he could lead Afari toward an infinitely broad future.

This rare endorsement from a big shot in the Chinese automotive industry brought Afari into the spotlight.

Just a few days earlier, another piece of news undoubtedly set the stage for this press conference—on September 25, Afari announced that Mercedes-Benz (Shanghai) Digital Technology Co., Ltd. strategically acquired a stake in Afari for 1.339 billion yuan at a price of 9.87 yuan per share, becoming its fifth-largest shareholder. Suddenly, Afari seemed to become the hottest newcomer in the industry.

The rise of Afari is not without its signs.

In June of this year, former Huawei car BU president Wang Jun officially joined Afari as co-president. His first public appearance after taking office was to represent the company in launching the "Afari Intelligent Driving 1.0" solution for the entire industry, boldly proclaiming that "Afari is an independent intelligent vehicle solution provider."

From personnel changes to business core shifts, Afari is attempting to tell a brand new story to the outside world. The script for this story has long been written: Wang Jun and Yin Qi clearly announced an aggressive product roadmap from L2+ to L3, and then to the launch of the L4-level Robotaxi solution.

The "Afari Intelligent Driving 1.0" solution is divided into a basic version (100 TOPS), a professional version (200+ TOPS), and a flagship version (up to 700 TOPS), to meet the diverse needs of different vehicle models The 2.0 plan targets L3 and is scheduled for release by the end of this year; the 3.0 plan focuses on Robotaxi, with Afari planning to achieve a scale deployment of over 1,000 vehicles in 18 cities worldwide within the next 18 months.

Wang Jun has set grand goals for this new story: "We hope to capture one-third of the global intelligent driving market."

The capital market's reaction was immediate. Under this series of intensive positive stimuli, Afari's stock price has repeatedly hit new highs, with its market value soaring from about 25.4 billion yuan at the beginning of the year to over 53 billion yuan.

It seems that the old era, once struggling on the brink of bankruptcy under the name of Lifan, has passed. With Li Shufu's endorsement and Yin Qi's management, a new story about AI, open platforms, and globalization is gradually emerging.

New Capital Landscape

Li Shufu has been driving Geely's transformation, hoping to turn Geely from a pure car manufacturing company into a high-tech company that provides technical support and solutions.

Before partnering with Yin Qi, among the more than ten listed companies in Li Shufu's hands, apart from Yikatong, which provides intelligent connected vehicle hardware and software solutions, and the ride-hailing service platform Cao Cao Mobility, there were traditional manufacturing enterprises like Geely Automobile. Clearly, this is still a considerable distance from Li Shufu's vision of a technology empire.

Afari is an important piece in Li Shufu's capital puzzle and a significant lever for his future ambitions.

However, before Afari, Li Shufu had other plans for this company. The predecessor of Afari, Lifan, was founded in 1992 and was once the export champion of China's motorcycle era, as well as the "first private automobile stock" that enjoyed great glory. However, after market competition intensified, it quickly declined and entered bankruptcy reorganization in 2020.

At that time, Li Shufu, with Geely's capital, teamed up with the local state-owned enterprise Chongqing Liangjiang Industry Group, entering the scene as a "white knight" through the Chongqing Manjianghong Fund (51% held by Chongqing Liangjiang Equity Investment Fund Management Co., Ltd. and 49% held by Geely's subsidiary Geely Maijie Investment Co., Ltd.) to lead this reorganization.

In the initial years, this revitalized asset told a completely different old story. After Geely executives took over, they quickly shifted Lifan Technology's business focus to battery swapping and the B-end market, launching new brands like Ruiblu, primarily serving Geely's ride-hailing platform "Cao Cao Mobility."

However, the market response to this story was mediocre. In 2023, the company's revenue fell by 21.8% year-on-year, and the net profit excluding non-recurring items incurred further losses. This stage of development belonged to a typical asset revitalization model; at this time, Lifan was essentially a contract manufacturer and a platform for specific business within Geely's industrial landscape.

The old chess game fell into a stalemate, and Li Shufu had to find a brand new, more attractive breakthrough for this A-share listed platform. AI became the new story for this platform.

In July 2024, Lifan Technology's equity structure underwent a decisive transformation. Geely Technology Group transferred 100% of the equity of Chongqing Jianghehui Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., which indirectly held 19.91% of Lifan Technology's shares, to Chongqing Jiangheshun Enterprise Management Co., Ltd., which is actually controlled by Yin Qi, the founder of Megvii Technology, for 2.43 billion yuan After the transaction was completed, Geely Investment still indirectly held approximately 15.20% of Lifan Technology through the Manjianghong Fund.

Subsequently, Yin Qi was elected as the chairman of the company, and Lifan Technology was renamed Chongqing Qianli Technology Co., Ltd. in February this year.

According to informed sources, Li Shufu's "search for talent" this time was not aimless. He met this AI genius, Yin Qi, who studied under Shen Xiangyang at Microsoft Research Asia, through the introduction of Shen Xiangyang, the former global executive vice president of Microsoft.

With personnel in place and the business framework restructured, the new story in the following six months unfolded naturally. The existing assets of Lifan Technology's originally capital-intensive and relatively low-margin terminal business were revitalized, and the predictable cash flow from the original business could be invested in higher-margin technology businesses to support its high R&D activities and share fixed costs.

The necessity of the new story stems not only from the demand for asset revitalization but also from the deep-seated anxiety of the entire Geely Group. In the second half of intelligentization, facing the dimensionality reduction impact from technology giants like Huawei, even the large Geely felt the pressure.

Geely Auto President Gui Shengyue has publicly stated multiple times that Geely aims to build a "second Huawei" together with Qianli Technology; only in this way can Geely achieve a leading position in future intelligentization and autonomous driving.

Thus, telling a new story about technology became an inevitable choice. This not only reshapes the valuation logic of Qianli Technology, paving the way for subsequent capital operations (such as the planned Hong Kong IPO), but also creates a seemingly independent vanguard for the entire Geely empire in the intelligentization battle.

Industry Challenges Awaiting Resolution

Reality is far more challenging than the story suggests. This new protagonist pushed to the forefront still faces a series of difficulties.

From the perspective of business development, support from Geely Group is both an advantage and a potential shackle for Qianli Technology. An executive from a leading intelligent driving solution provider analyzed to Wall Street Insights that intelligent driving solutions are the core competitiveness related to the future of car companies, and other car companies will still have concerns about the background of suppliers.

Such concerns are not unfounded. In recent years, mainstream car companies have made intelligentization a core strategy. BYD has been continuously integrating its intelligentization department since last year's Spring Festival; Chery has also integrated its subsidiary Dazhuo Intelligent this year to establish the "Chery Intelligentization Center."

In addition, global car companies are increasingly forming deep equity "bindings" with mainstream intelligent driving solution providers through strategic investments. Whether it is General Motors or Toyota investing in Momenta, or many domestic car companies collectively investing in Horizon Robotics, it signifies that traditional supply chain relationships are being replaced by capital-driven R&D ecological alliances.

As for the hottest player currently, Huawei, it has officially invested in Seres and Avita, while other car companies have yet to invest due to factors such as valuation, funding, and strategic choices. However, some other car companies have taken alternative paths, such as GAC's cooperation with Huawei through its wholly-owned subsidiary Huawang Automobile to demonstrate its control.

Clearly, automakers still have their own calculations in choosing paths to achieve intelligentization.

For instance, Mercedes-Benz, which recently invested in Qianli Technology, already has an equity relationship with Geely Holding Group, which holds 9.69% of Daimler AG. The subsequent cooperation between the two parties remains to be observed. On the same day it invested in Qianli Technology, Mercedes-Benz also announced that a new urban and highway navigation assistance system (L2 level) developed in collaboration with Momenta is about to be released In terms of finance, the intelligent driving industry is currently still in a period of high-intensity R&D investment. From the financial data, Afari's R&D investment in the first half of 2025 is approximately 288 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 59.67%. Operating revenue increased from 2.988 billion yuan in the first half of 2024, growing by 40.04% to 4.184 billion yuan, mainly due to the growth in sales of automotive and motorcycle businesses.

However, the net profit attributable to shareholders, excluding non-recurring gains and losses, decreased from 16.6068 million yuan in the first half of 2024 to -134 million yuan in the first half of 2025. The main reason is that Afari has increased its R&D investment in intelligent vehicle cockpit operating systems, leading to a significant rise in R&D expenses. Additionally, the increase in asset impairment losses and deferred income tax expenses also impacted this.

In comparison to Huawei, as of the end of 2024, the cumulative R&D investment in its automotive business unit has exceeded 40 billion yuan, and it achieved profitability for the first time in the first half of this year, with revenue reaching 27 billion yuan. There is still a gap between the two in terms of R&D investment and revenue.

Moreover, the intelligent driving market has long passed the "blue ocean" stage, and competition has become fierce. According to data from ZuoSi Automotive Research, from January 2023 to October 2024, Huawei and Momenta have captured nearly 90% of the market share in city NOA solutions supplied by third-party suppliers. As a latecomer, how Afari breaks through and secures more external orders is essential for realizing its ambitions.

The Endgame of "Gambling"

From the call for software-defined vehicles to the current wave of AI large models, it has only been a few years. The century-old foundation of the automotive industry is being uprooted. In this new industrial chess game, players are no longer just traditional automakers; the presence of tech giants is everywhere, and the rules of the game are being rewritten by code rather than steel.

In this game, Li Shufu, through dazzling capital operations, has pushed Afari to the forefront, undoubtedly marking a brilliant opening move. It showcases the highest strategic layout and resource integration capabilities that a capital hunter can achieve in the face of a transformative era.

However, as Geely's own history proves, any brilliant capital operation is merely the beginning of a long journey. The once audacious "snake swallowing elephant" move also underwent nearly a decade of arduous integration before finally welcoming the value return of Volvo.

For Afari today, the challenges it faces are far more complex than those of Volvo back then. This is because it attempts to touch upon the most sensitive and core "soul" ownership issues in the industry. What it aims to build is not just a company, but a brand new model of industrial trust.

For Yin Qi, whether he can lead Afari to establish a new model of industrial trust is key to Afari's breakthrough.

Yin Qi has stated that the soul of the AI system is data, which determines that suppliers and automakers must form a deep link of "you have me, I have you," rather than just a client-vendor relationship. However, whether this theory of deep linkage, rooted in technological idealism, can break the deeply entrenched parochialism in the traditional automotive industry is a huge unknown Even Huawei, with its more open equity structure, faced hesitation when seeking partners like FAW. It is easy to imagine the difficulty that Afari faces in getting its competitors to lower their guard.

In addition, Afari is now a publicly listed company on the A-share market and plans to go public in Hong Kong. Investors will scrutinize its most authentic operating data with a more critical eye: the growth of orders from external clients (non-Geely), the improvement of gross margins in its technology business, and when its net profit excluding non-recurring items can turn positive.

In the past, Li Shufu was adept at driving growth through capital, using aggressive means such as mergers, restructuring, and public listings to integrate resources and build platforms in the shortest time possible, pursuing rapid value amplification. However, in the process of industrial implementation, he had to adhere to the lengthy rules of technological research and development, product rollout, and market validation, pursuing long-term value accumulation.

If Afari succeeds, Li Shufu's gamble on Yin Qi will no longer be merely a matter of his personal capital landscape's success or failure, but rather a concrete example of how industry and capital can collaborate to rejuvenate the industry.

The outcome of this gamble can no longer be simply measured by the success or failure of a single company. It is more like a mirror reflecting Geely as a company, and even the entire Chinese automotive industry, in its ambitions and dilemmas during the intelligent transformation.

In the endgame of intelligence, what truly defines an empire is not the size of its capital landscape, but the depth of its technological foundation. The cornerstone of a trillion-dollar empire in the new era will always be reliable technology, observable scale, and sustainable performance.

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