38 Billion Chongqing Auto Dark Horse Absorbs Geely's 2,500-Person Team

A 37-year-old rising star in technology embarks on a new path.

On August 3rd, "Qianli Zhijia" operated by Yin Qi successfully brought in approximately 2,500 Geely employees, including about 1,500 from Zeekr and nearly 1,000 from Geely Research Institute. Along with 500 employees from Mai Chi Zhixing, the new company’s size reached 3,000 people.

According to reports, all employees of Zeekr Intelligent Driving must complete their job transfers before the 15th of this month.

Yin Qi had already prepared provisions, and Qianli Zhijia just completed a capital increase in July, with shareholders having cumulatively contributed over 1.7 billion yuan in cash.

In his quest for "intelligent driving," he has gained another ally. In June, Qianli Technology brought in Wang Jun, the former inaugural president of Huawei's Intelligent Automotive Solution BU, to serve as co-president.

Yin Qi graduated from Tsinghua University's Computer Laboratory, excelling in algorithms, while Wang Jun has extensive practical experience. Together, they have joined forces to propel Qianli Zhijia forward.

tightly bound

On August 1st, according to "21 Auto" reports, Yin Qi and Wang Jun went to Ningbo Hangzhou Bay to attend a "mobilization meeting," which lasted for 3 hours.

This meeting was convened by Geely. Geely Auto CEO Gan Jiayue and ZEEKR Technology Group Vice President Chen Qi both attended and delivered speeches.

The senior management pointed out that Geely will have only one intelligent driving team in the future, namely Qianli Intelligent Driving. The Zeekr intelligent driving team and Geely Research Institute's intelligent driving team will be integrated into the new company.

On the same day, Qianli Technology, led by Yin Qi, announced that it plans to sign an agreement with Ningbo Geely Automobile Research Institute to transfer the intellectual property of a model under development for 345 million yuan.

The transfer subject is an extended-range vehicle technology independently developed by Ruilan. Geely also makes the payment straightforward—paying the full amount in one lump sum.

Absorbing Zhijia's assets and releasing extended-range model technology, the main theme of the Qianli series becomes clearer—focusing on "AI + Cars" to create a smart mobility technology brand.

The two parties have a long-standing relationship.

In 2024, Jianghehui, the actual controller of Yinchi, acquired 900 million shares of Qianli Technology by purchasing shares held by a company under Geely for 2.43 billion yuan, becoming its second-largest shareholder. Chongqing Manjianghong, also under Geely, remains the largest shareholder.

After becoming the chairman of Qianli Technology, Yin Qi made his first public appearance, focusing on the intelligent driving system.

In March, Qianli Technology and Geely Auto jointly launched the Qianli Vast Intelligent Driving System, introducing five solutions: H1, H3, H5, H7, and H9, which will be applied to all Geely models in the future.

The intelligent driving capabilities of "Haohan" come from Geely's R&D team, while the "thousand-mile" large model and computing power are mastered by Yinchi's artificial intelligence team.

On that day, Yin Qi stated in his speech that the automotive industry is currently transitioning from "car + AI" to "AI + car," and in the future, there will be a need for a solution provider that can integrate large model technology, product scenarios, and both software and hardware capabilities.

Cooperative Intelligent Driving

Yin Qi’s team, promptly disclose a detailed plan.

In March, the board of directors issued an announcement proposing to pool various resources and, in two steps, create a new intelligent driving company.

Step one: Qianli Technology’s wholly-owned subsidiary “Chongqing Zhiqi Xinwang” will contribute 200 million yuan and, together with Chongqing Liangjiang Industrial Fund, Chongqing Industrial Mother Fund, and others, jointly establish “Chongqing Jianghe Qixing.”

On June 27, Jianghe Qixing in Chongqing completed the industrial and commercial registration procedures and obtained its business license.

Step two, the partnership will increase capital in "Qianli Zhijia" with 1.5 billion RMB in cash, acquiring a 30% equity stake.

According to the "Car BU Investment Framework Agreement," the two allied car companies, with Geely's subsidiary Jirun Automobile's contribution method being 200 million yuan in cash and 1.3 billion yuan in physical assets, while Lotus contributes 250 million yuan in physical assets.

"Geely will transfer the ownership of some of its existing intelligent driving research and development technologies (fourteen major items), and Lotus will transfer the usage rights of some of its intelligent driving research and development technologies (three major items) to the joint venture," the announcement stated.

Megvii’s intelligent driving brand, MaiChi Zhixing, needs to transfer the ownership of all businesses and assets under its vehicle BU to Qianli Zhijia. Yin Qi holds shares in MaiChi Zhixing and will be one of the shareholders of the new company.

On July 4th, Qianli Zhijia's registered capital of 200 million yuan was fully in place. Jirun Automobile and Maichi Zhixing each hold a 30% stake.

The new company management team has been announced: Wang Jun will serve as Chairman, and Yin Qi's entrepreneurial partner and Megvii Technology co-founder Yang Mu will serve as a director. The goal is to "create an open platform for third-party vehicle enterprises."

As soon as Wang Jun joined the company, he endorsed the new product.

In June, Qianli Technology released the "Qianli Intelligent Driving 1.0" solution, which is available in Basic, Professional, and Flagship editions.

The flagship version is equipped with a platform boasting up to 700 TOPS of computing power, enabling multi-scenario autonomous decision-making and complex interactions, allowing it to move from one parking space to another.

Advancing on multiple fronts

Qianli Technology, controlled by Yin Qi, was originally Lifan Technology and currently has a market value of about 38 billion yuan.

It has two major segments: one is the terminal business, including motorcycle brands "Lifan" and "Paifang," and new energy vehicle brand "Ruilan"; the other is the technology business, focusing on intelligent driving and intelligent cockpit solutions.

Manufacturing is hard work, with a gross profit margin of less than 8 points last year, while other businesses had a gross profit margin as high as 45.7%.

The new leader, Yin Qi, is the founder of Megvii Technology. He was born in Wuhu, Anhui, has a technical background, and has worked in the AI field for over ten years.

In his view, hardware will no longer be the core of the automotive business model, and the focus of research and development will shift to creating high-quality software.

Yin Qi gave an example: In the mobile phone industry, after the iPhone ushered in the era of smartphones, hardware gradually converged to the flat, touchscreen form, and the focus of products shifted to software applications and user experience; the automotive industry will see a similar trend.

"In the next five years, people might discuss the new cockpit more than intelligent driving." While focusing on intelligent driving, he is also developing smart cockpit solutions.

In July, Yin Qi attended the World Artificial Intelligence Conference and partnered with Jiyue Xingchen and Geely to launch the intelligent cockpit Agent OS (preview version).

The goal of this Agent is to become a personal life assistant that autonomously completes various tasks based on user preferences, such as automatically adjusting the seat position, air conditioning temperature, and automatically searching for and playing videos that the user likes.

Yinqi stated that Qianli Technology positions itself as a supplier of intelligent products and intelligent services. This year, it will accelerate the layout of its technology business, and its performance will grow rapidly by 2026.

From January to March, Qianli Technology's net profit was approximately 20 million yuan, indicating an improvement in its profitability.

Following the "AI + Car" approach, it has established Qianli Zhijia, with resources and logistics in place, ready to accelerate at full speed.

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