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Dutch NXP Semiconductors chip maker The disproportionate $ 44 billion allocated to Qualcomm to acquire it was lost last year. In an announcement on Tuesday, NXP announced its intention to partner with Hawkeye Technology, a Chinese company specializing in automotive radars, as part of its ambition to capture the rapid growth of sensor vehicles in China.
The financial terms of the investment have not been disclosed, but the partnership will allow Hawkeye to provide a set of technical knowledge to NXP. This includes the Chinese company's technical team, a research laboratory it has established with Southeast University in Nanjing, China, and its 77Ghz radar, a long-range sensing technology that allows cars to detect collisions 'to a precision less than one millimeter.
Under this agreement, NXP and Hawkeye will work together to create reference models rather than products for retail.
"The rapid development of ADAS [Automatic Data Acquisition System] and autonomous driving technologies have raised new requirements for millimeter-based vehicle-based radar, "said Alex Shi, co-founder and chief executive officer of Hawkeye. "By partnering with NXP, Hawkeye will focus on providing advanced solutions for millimeter-wave radar systems, as well as full technical support for Tier 1 customers."
The deal is a smart move for NXP, which is renowned for its car-related chips, as it strives to become a key player in China's self-driving race. Hawkeye may not be well known, but not his CEO. Shi was the former boss of Banma Network, a joint venture between electronics giant Alibaba and Chinese automaker SAIC Motors, the leading player in the marketing of Alibaba's connected car solutions.
In April 2015, Shi and a group of other Chinese automotive personalities founded Hawkeye with an initial registered capital of 30 million yuan ($ 4.5 million).
Hawkeye financing arrived less than a year after Qualcomm abandoned its proposed acquisition of NXP, which was supposed to be one of the largest in the semiconductor industry, but was ultimately a collateral damage due to rising trade tensions between China and the United States.
China remained at the center of NXP's concerns, which ensured that its alliance with Hawkeye testified to its "confidence in the Chinese market" and its "determination to continually invest in the country," said NXP President Kurt Sievers, in a statement.
"Automotive innovators, such as Hawkeye and Southeast University, have become the driving force behind the transformation of the Chinese auto industry. We are excited to be working with these great partners and to leverage NXP's leadership in the fast growing radar semiconductor market to improve road safety, "said Sievers.
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