Black Sesame Technologies Sprint for the First Autonomous Driving Computing Chip

Black Sesame International Holding Limited officially submitted a prospectus to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on June 30, 2023, planning to list on the Main Board, with CICC (中金公司) and Huatai International (华泰国际) serving as joint sponsors. Since the 18C rule of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange came into effect on March 31 this year, Black Sesame Technologies has become the first company to officially submit A-1 listing documents in accordance with this rule.

A report by AlixPartners pointed out that chip manufacturing is still a limiting factor for automotive production capacity, and it is predicted that by 2024, the supply of automotive chips will continue to be unable to meet demand. In addition, according to Frost & Sullivan's data, before 2030, the global automotive chip market will exceed CNY 600 billion. Among them, the global automotive grade SoC market size is expected to reach CNY 179.2 billion in 2028, and the compound annual growth rate from 2022 to 2028 will be as high as 27%.

Founded in 2016, Black Sesame Technologies is a supplier focusing on car-grade smart car computing SoC and SoC-based solutions, and is also one of the early companies in the field of autonomous driving chips. The company's revenue in 2020, 2021, and 2022 will be CNY 53.02 million, CNY 60.5 million, and CNY 165 million respectively, while the corresponding operating losses will be CNY 293 million, CNY 723 million and CNY 1.053 billion, and the adjusted net loss will be CNY 273 million, CNY 614 million and CNY 700 million.

According to the shipments of automotive-grade high-computing SoCs in 2022, Black Sesame Technologies has become the world's third-largest supplier. After years of hard work and dedication, the company has made remarkable progress, creating the industry-recognized Huashan series and Wudang series products in the field of autonomous driving chips. At the same time, Black Sesame Technologies has successfully launched advanced ADAS and autonomous driving solutions based on self-developed chips. According to Frost & Sullivan's prediction, Black Sesame Technologies's market share in China and the global market will rise to 9.7% and 8.5% respectively.

At present, there are no listed companies in the Hong Kong stock market in the field of automotive chips. If the listing is successful, Black Sesame Technologies is expected to become the first China autonomous driving computing chip. Early institutional investors of Black Sesame Technologies include Northern Light Venture Capital (北极光创投), SAIC Group (上汽集团), China Merchants Innovation Investment (招商局创投), Oceanpine Capital (海松资本), Tencent (腾讯), Boyuan Capital (博原资本), Dongfeng Motor Group (东风汽车集团), Yangtze River Xiaomi Industry Fund (小米长江产业基金), NIO Capital (蔚来资本), Geely (吉利), SUMMITVIEW CAPITAL (武岳峰资本), BOC Investment (中银投资), SDIC (国投招商), LCIG (联想创投) and other industrial capitals.

According to the prospectus, as of the latest practicable date, Black Sesame Technologies has received intentional orders for 15 models from 10 auto OEMs and first-tier suppliers, and has cooperated with more than 30 auto OEMs and first-tier suppliers, such as FAW Group (一汽集团), Dongfeng Group (东风集团), JAC Group (江汽集团), HYCAN (合创), ECARX (亿咖通科技), Baidu (百度), Bosch, ZF and Marelli.