Chinese autonomous driving startup Momenta Global plans to scale its robotaxi fleet to several thousand vehicles by the end of next year, expanding into Dubai and additional European cities, according to statements made by Shuo Xie, head of the company's robotaxi business, to Reuters. The company currently operates more than 100 autonomous vehicles across three countries, with active testing underway in five Chinese cities, Munich, and Abu Dhabi.
Momenta's fleet is expected to reach the hundreds by the end of this year before scaling into several thousand by late next year. Alongside planned operations in Dubai, the company has held discussions with several European municipalities and identified Japan as another priority expansion market. In the robotaxi sector, the firm competes with Alphabet's Waymo and Chinese autonomous driving developer Pony.ai.
Founded by a former Microsoft researcher, Momenta operates two core business lines: selling driver-assistance software to automakers and operating autonomous robotaxis. Its automotive partners and backers include Mercedes-Benz, Toyota, and BYD. Momenta raised approximately $751 million during an initial public offering in Hong Kong in July, though its shares have since declined about 45% and the company remains unprofitable amid high research and development spending.
To manage vehicle manufacturing and operating costs, Momenta is partnering with semiconductor developer XHeart to produce custom chips tailored to its autonomous driving software. According to Xie, the custom hardware is designed to deliver computing power at a significantly lower cost than comparable Nvidia processors, with plans to host future international robotaxi deployments on XHeart's next-generation X9 chip.
Sources
- konsulteer.com · 2026-09-30
