Xiaomi acquires autonomous driving company Deepmotion for $77 million

[NelsonG]

Xiaomi is getting serious about its electric car business.

CNBC reported Thursday that Xiaomi has acquired Chinese autonomous driving startup Deepmotion for about $77.37 million.

The company said the acquisition will help "enhance the technological competitiveness" of its electric car business.

With the move, Xiaomi is poised to become a competitor to other autonomous driving and electric car companies, including Tesla and Waymo in the U.S. and Baidu in China.

SEE ALSO: Xiaomi pushes Apple down to become the number two smartphone maker

The news follows Xiaomi's announcement in March that it will invest $10 billion over the next 10 years into its upcoming electric vehicle business. "Xiaomi hopes to offer quality smart electric vehicles to let everyone in the world enjoy smart living anytime, anywhere," the company said in a statement at the time.

Xiaomi made the acquisition announcement after reporting financial results for the second quarter of 2021. The company hit record revenue of 87.8 billion yuan ($13.5) million. In July, Xiaomi has overtaken Apple to become the number two smartphone vendor globally, and in the second quarter it also became the biggest smartphone vendor in Europe. But while the company's revenue largely comes from smartphones, Xiaomi has been quite aggressive in pushing into other products, including TVs, smart watches, and electric scooters.

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