Li Auto's MHX Chip Arm Raises RMB 1.625B at $2.5B Valuation

Li Auto's chip subsidiary Shanghai Mahe Xin Technology, known as MHX, has signed its first external financing: RMB 1.625 billion, roughly $242 million, with the EV maker putting in RMB 1 billion and outside investors adding RMB 625 million, CNEV Post reported on October 16. Lead investor Hangzhou Jingtao also holds a subscription right to put in up to RMB 500 million more by December 31, 2026, which would lift the total to RMB 2.125 billion and the post-money valuation to RMB 17.1 billion, about $2.5 billion.

Lanchi Ventures, Huaye Tiancheng and MiraclePlus join Hangzhou Jingtao in the round. Under the full-exercise scenario, Li Auto still owns 74.01%, external investors 6.58%, and an equity incentive vehicle 19.41%. Li Auto said it will retain control of MHX and continue consolidating its financial results after the financing.

The product driving the pitch is the Mach M100, which Li Auto describes as "the world's first dynamic dataflow AI chip," a 5-nanometer automotive-grade part rated at 1,280 TOPS and already in mass production for the company's own driver-assistance stacks. The subtext for outside money is that the silicon does not have to stay inside Li Auto's cars. "Alongside serving Li Auto's vehicles, MHX Technology will pursue product supply and partnerships with external customers, drawing on its technology and product portfolio spanning chips, domain controllers and operating systems," the company said, framing the unit as "a second growth engine alongside its EV business."

The announcement does not name a foundry, any non-automotive customer, or a timeline for when M100 silicon ships outside Li Auto's own lineup. It arrives into a dense stretch of China AI-chip financings, the same week Beijing floated fresh export curbs on frontier model weights and compute.