On June 29th, Yikong Intelligent Driving Technology Co., Ltd. (referred to as Yikong Intelligent Driving, 07687) officially launched its H-share global offering plan and is expected to be listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on July 8th. According to the announcement published on the website of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, the global offering of 26132000 shares for the Easy Control Intelligent Driving Plan is expected to raise a total of approximately HKD 2.121 billion to HKD 2.298 billion.
As the world's largest provider of autonomous driving solutions for mining areas, the IPO of Yikong Intelligent Driving in Hong Kong has built a luxurious lineup of cornerstone investors, including Zijin Mining, XCMG Group, Fidelity International, JPMorgan Chase, and Baring Indus、Jain Global、Regal、 Eleven institutional investors, including Guangfa Fund, Dinghui Investment, and Seven Grand, have cast a "vote of confidence" with real money, covering various types of entities such as global industry leaders, top international long-term capital, multi strategy funds, and top Chinese capital, with a total subscription ratio of about 50% reaching the upper limit.
In the recent turbulent market environment, the recognition of top institutions has also brought tremendous confidence to the market. With the opening of the IPO, Yikong Intelligent Driving is about to debut in the capital market as the "world's first autonomous driving stock in mining areas".
Top global funds rush to raise funds, holding the top spot in the world's mining area autonomous driving first stock
Public information shows that Yikong Intelligent Driving is a high-tech enterprise specializing in unmanned driving in mining areas. The company adheres to independent research and development and collaborative promotion of scene implementation, and has built a full stack L4 level autonomous driving technology system, forming a software and hardware integrated solution suitable for heavy-duty mining trucks. In the context of increasingly fierce competition for the commercialization of L4 level autonomous driving technology, the company has formed a clear market first mover advantage and technological advantage, and has also attracted the attention of many investors inside and outside the industry.
According to the prospectus, since its establishment, Yikong Intelligent Driving has completed 11 rounds of major financing, with a cumulative financing amount of 2.059 billion yuan. The participating entities include industry giants such as Zijin Mining and CATL, as well as well-known institutions such as NIO Capital, Sidao Capital, Hongyi Investment, and Gaocheng Investment.
Among them, the joint entry of industry giants undoubtedly represents the industry chain's optimism about the development prospects of autonomous driving technology in mining areas. As the world's third largest mining leader by market value, Zijin Mining had already been optimistic about the application value of its unmanned driving (885736) technology in mining scenarios as early as 2021, leading the B1 round of financing for Easy Control Intelligent Driving. Afterwards, Zijin Mining continued to increase its investment, jointly investing over 300 million RMB with other institutions in 2024. In addition, on the eve of the submission of Yikong Intelligent Driving to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange, another new energy industry giant Ningde Times also chose to make a strong move, investing over 400 million yuan to jointly lead the D-round financing of Yikong Intelligent Driving.
In this IPO of EasyDrive Hong Kong stock, Zijin Mining once again represents the industry and has become an important strategic cornerstone investor. Zijin Mining's global resource accumulation is also expected to further open up market space for the global layout of Easy Control Intelligent Driving.
In addition, XCMG Group, a leading global enterprise in the field of construction machinery, has also chosen to invest in the Yikong Intelligent Driving strategy and participate in IPO subscription as a cornerstone investor. XCMG Group ranks among the top three in the global top 50 construction machinery manufacturers and first in China, making it a typical representative of China's construction machinery equipment going global.
The joint optimism of upstream and downstream not only indicates that the autonomous driving track in mining areas is in an explosive period, but also highlights the key position of Easy Control Intelligent Driving as the core platform of the industry - its technical solutions and business models have gained strategic recognition from core players in the entire industry chain, and are becoming a key hub connecting mining operations and equipment manufacturing.
In addition to support from the industry, various types of global patient capital have also joined the cornerstone investor lineup of Easy Control Intelligent Driving. Renowned long-term funds such as Fidelity International, JPMorgan Chase, and Baring, well-known international multi strategy funds such as Indus, Jain Global, and Regal, and the rising American asset management company Seven Grand, as well as two leading Chinese long-term funds, Guangfa Fund and Dinghui Investment, have created a luxurious cornerstone investor lineup for EasyDrive, covering domestic and international long-term capital and upstream and downstream industry leaders.
It is worth mentioning that Regal is a well-known asset management platform in Australia, established in 2004. Its stock investment strategy focuses on allocating resources and the mining sector. According to public information, this investment in Yikong Intelligent Driving is also the first time in over 20 years that Regal has participated in a Hong Kong IPO as a cornerstone investor, representing the optimistic expectations of mining focused funds for Yikong's expansion in the Australian market.
The leading position of the market is stable, and the commercial prospects are fully opened up
The core of supporting numerous frontline institutions to join the cornerstone investor lineup lies in the industry-leading position of Yikong Intelligent Driving, which is characterized by a fault zone.
From the perspective of market position, as the world's first and currently the only company to deploy over 2500 active unmanned mining truck fleets, in terms of vehicle numbers, by 2025, Easy Control Intelligent Driving will occupy 55.5% of the market share of unmanned driving solutions in Chinese mining areas, covering multiple mining scenarios such as coal mines, metal mines, and non-metallic mines.
At present, the company's unmanned driving solution for mining areas has been deployed in 30 mines operated by leading mining groups such as National Energy Group, State Power Investment Corporation, and TBEA. It has been applied to 19 of the 41 open-pit coal mines with an approved annual production capacity of over 10 million tons in China, and also covers 7 of the top 12 large-scale open-pit coal mines with approved annual production capacity nationwide, leading the market penetration advantage. In the domestic market for autonomous driving services in mining areas, Yikong Intelligent Driving has maintained its first place in scale for two consecutive years and is the largest service provider in the field.
In addition, according to the prospectus, as of December 31, 2025, Yikong Intelligent Driving also has 2580 active autonomous driving mining trucks, which also ranks first in the world in terms of scale. The company's annual transportation mileage has increased from 4.6 million kilometers to 61.8 million kilometers, and the annual transportation material volume has increased from 30.6 million cubic meters to 308 million cubic meters. It has maintained a safe operation record for six consecutive years, providing reliable and stable unmanned driving solutions for mines worldwide. According to Frost&Sullivan's data, the global scale of autonomous driving solutions in mining areas is expected to increase from approximately $1 billion in 2025 to $7.3 billion in 2030 in terms of revenue, with a compound annual growth rate of approximately 47.4%, fully opening up the ceiling of industry development.
From a higher perspective, in the wave of deep integration between artificial intelligence and the physical world, autonomous driving, as a key link in the physical AI industry chain, is also ushering in new opportunities for commercial development. Among them, Yikong Intelligent Driving relies on the large-scale implementation of unmanned mining card hardware and digital mining platform to build a complete technological loop of mine specific intelligence, mine physical AI, and mine spatial intelligence, forming a unique barrier of "entity collection mechanism reasoning global collaboration". While benefiting from the increase in unmanned transportation penetration rate in open-pit mines in the short term, it has broader imagination space in the medium and long term.
When unmanned mining trucks enter high-risk engineering areas, the technology of autonomous driving brings not only safety guarantees, but also the core key to promoting the overall intelligence and scale transformation of mining areas. It is this leap opportunity that has opened a window for the commercialization of autonomous driving in mining areas, and Yikong Intelligent Driving is taking the lead in opening the door to the commercialization of autonomous driving in mining areas with the support of capital.
