Asian Tech Press (Oct 24) -- Chinese self-driving company Pony.ai recently secured $100 million in financing from an investment fund tied to Saudi Arabia's flagship project NEOM, a Chinese media outlet reported on Tuesday.

The two sides will set up a joint venture in Saudi Arabia's new smart city NEOM, where Pony.ai's Robotaxi fleet, self-driving manufacturing and research and development center will take place.

Pony.ai's valuation remains the same, at $8.5 billion, after the series D2 financing round, the report said.

Founded in 2016, Pony.ai is currently the most valuable self-driving company in China.

Previously, Pony.ai has been focusing on the areas of Robotaxi and Robotruck, hoping to realize unmanned driving in one step and replace the driver.

However, with the evolution of Tesla Autopilot, and more car companies put resources into intelligent assisted driving, Pony.ai has also re-adjusted its strategy internally, and set up passenger car assisted driving business.

On the one hand, after obtaining permits in four first-tier cities in China, Pony.ai has been carrying out driverless robotaxi tests and operations on a small scale.

On the other hand, Pony.ai set up a joint venture with Toyota China and GAC Toyota for Robotaxi's mass production and large-scale deployment.

Investment bodies in the Middle Eastern countries have shown strong interest in China's artificial intelligence and smart cars in recent years, hoping to seek more Chinese opportunities in these fields.

Pony.ai last week signed a cooperation agreement with Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, becoming a new member of the Smart and Autonomous Vehicle Industry (SAVI) cluster in Abu Dhabi, and was authorized to carry out road tests of self-driving vehicles at Yas Island.