Samsung Electronics is setting up a new fund to invest in the automotive market. The Samsung Automotive Innovation Fund has an initial USD 300 million, and its first investment is USD 75 million in TTtech, a specialist in the integration of automotive safety and control systems that works closely with Audi.
The new fund will focus on connected car and autonomous technologies, including smart sensors, machine vision, artificial intelligence, high-performance computing, connectivity solutions, automotive-grade safety solutions, security, and privacy.
In addition to the fund, Harman, which was acquired by Samsung earlier this year, has established a new Autonomous/ADAS Strategic Business Unit. Part of Harman’s Connected Car division, the SBU will work with the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center Smart Machines team to develop key technologies for connected vehicles. The SSIC Smart Machines team is an advanced automotive engineering group dedicated to enabling next-generation mobility products.
John Absmeier has been appointed Senior Vice President of the new Harman SBU, and will also retain his role as Vice President of Smart Machines for SSIC.
Earlier investments by Samsung in the automotive sector include AImotive and Renovo for automated driving; Quanergy, TetraVue, and Oculii for sensors; Autotalks and Valens for connectivity; and Graphcore for high-performance computing. Samsung also has licences for on-road testing of autonomous driving software and hardware under development in Korea and California.
