Jia Yueting is eyeing the wallet of the Middle East tyrant again

Author|Sun Pengyue

Edited by Gale

Jia Yueting fell in love with the local tyrant big financier?

On Monday (December 4), local time, Faraday Future announced on its official website that it plans to establish a regional headquarters, production base and advanced R&D center in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, to bring its "generative AI technology and Jizhi Technology Top Luxury AI Tram" to the local Intelligent Driving Vehicle Industry Cluster (SAVI). ”

Not only that, two weeks ago, Faraday Future held the company's Middle East strategy conference in Abu Dhabi, at which it signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Master Investment Group and Siraj Finance LLC to officially enter the Middle East market.

And, of course, there's the essential routine: Faraday Future's FF 91 vehicle, which is custom-built for the Middle East market, is scheduled for delivery in 2024.

Year after year, Jia Yueting, who has been building cars for 9 years in the blink of an eye, has delivered a total of 7 FF 91s so far.

Faraday Future starting to make a profit?

Faraday Future, which only delivered 7 cars, is undoubtedly on the verge of shock in the eyes of the public, but unexpectedly, Faraday Future is still doing well.

In Faraday Future's just-announced Q3 2023 financial report, there were major breakthroughs in financial highlights and financing.

Among them, Faraday Future sold the only factory that can make cars, that is, the Hanford factory in California, USA, and obtained 12 million US dollars (about 86.8692 million yuan) of non-dilutive share capital.

Selling his only car-making base is undoubtedly the rhythm of running away with a bucket. In order to alleviate the panic of shareholders, Faraday Future vowed in the company's announcement: "We have not sold any physical assets, including equipment, we have been renting the Hanford factory before, and now we have only changed landlords." The plant continues to operate as normal.

As for this contradiction, how many people can be fooled?

In addition to selling the factory, Faraday Future has been financing "new money" for a long time. According to the Q3 2023 financial report, Faraday Future raised US$61.8 million (about 447 million) through convertible notes, equity lines of credit and ATM financing.

In addition, the 7 FF 91s that were successfully delivered also received 551,000 US dollars (about 3,991,900 yuan) in car sales expenses.

Faraday Future's Q3 2023 earnings report

Jia Yueting, who had the money in hand and was not panicked, reformulated Faraday Future's mass production plan: the delivery of Faraday Future's first product was divided into three phases: in the first stage, the first users will pay for the vehicle in full in order to book and receive training in using the vehicle, and in the second stage, the first owners will get the vehicle. It will not be until the third stage that the ramp-up will be fully delivered.

At present, the company is still in the second stage, that is, the ramp-up period. The company plans to produce 1,000 units in 2024 and become a cash-flow-even company by 2025.

Although it finally saw the "return money", Faraday Future's financial performance was not good, especially in a state of loss, with a net loss of 78.046 million US dollars (about 565 million yuan) in the Q3 quarter of 2023, a year-on-year decrease of 34.89% and a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 37.53%.

Seven cars were sold, with a net loss of $78.046 million, which is equivalent to more than $10 million for every car Jia Yueting sells.

Although, Jia Yueting relied on the "accounting technology" at the bottom of the box and skillfully came with a "life-saving money" from capital operations, but Faraday Future's stock price still collapsed.

Since mid-November, Faraday Future's stock price has fallen more than 20% to $0.52 per share, and then has fallen all the way to just $0.35 per share today. The stock price has repeatedly hit record lows, and the market value has also declined, and the current total market value is only 20.46 million.

AI is the next "fool"

Boss Jia's car-making road has always run through one route: get money, survive, mass production and delivery.

Although "mass production and delivery" is far away, "getting money" and "surviving" are long-term tasks. But for Jia Yueting's famous "notoriety", it is not easy to find an excuse for fooling, so this time he set his sights on the AI model.

2023 is destined to be a year of AI, hundreds of generative AI at home and abroad are dancing like crazy demons, everyone is counting on making some money on AI, even if it is an unrelated company, they all want to make their company's business scope involve a little artificial intelligence, and Jia Yueting is no exception.

Just last month, Faraday Future officially announced the launch of a "revolutionary product" FF aiPal Beta, according to which it is a Generative AI product in the field of mobility, using the advanced technology of large language models (LLMs) to provide a refreshing and personalized AI experience.

The intelligence of FF aiPal Beta lies in its ability to display life services in the sidebar of the car's large central control screen, recommend nearby Michelin-starred restaurants based on real-time geographical location, display real-time stock information, scroll through real-time news for browsing, remind schedules, etc.

Faraday Future announced that it also plans to partner with third-party developers to provide a wide range of AI services to meet different use cases in the future. According to Jim Gao, global vice president of FF's intelligent connected application platform, this beta version will first be available to the "co-creators", and users can apply for the beta experience through "FF Labs" on the official website.

All in all, it's pretty much the same as a pop-up message on your phone. Faraday Future worked hard to make one, although we did not have mass production and delivery, but we made a very profitable car software!

FF 91

For example, Faraday plans to establish a regional headquarters, production base and advanced R&D center in Abu Dhabi, in the name of creating "generative AI technology and the ultimate luxury AI tram of Jizhi Technology." ”

The two institutions signed with Faraday Future are Master Investment Group (MIG) and Siraj Finance LLC, both of which have UAE royal backgrounds. But Jia Yueting is too "notorious", and the Middle Eastern tyrant is not a fool.

However, according to the agreement, the two companies only supported Faraday Future's business operations in the Middle East, including business development, sales and marketing, strategic financing and partnerships, etc., and did not mention any investment, which means that neither company invested money in Jia Yueting.

It seems that the money of the owner's father is not easy to cheat!

New energy takes root in the Middle East

Although it is a fossil fuel base with one of the world's largest oil and gas reserves, the Middle East has always been one of the most enthusiastic regions for new energy vehicle companies. The reason is that they are so afraid of the depletion of oil resources that they have nothing left.

Saudi Arabia launched its Vision 2030 in 2016, aiming to increase the proportion of renewable energy to 50% of electricity generation by 2030, and the UAE released its "Energy Strategy 2050" in 2017, planning to invest trillions of yuan (600 billion dirhams), aiming to make 44% of the UAE's energy mix renewable energy, 38% natural gas, 12% clean fossil energy, and 6% nuclear energy by 2050.

In this context, a large number of Middle Eastern countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Jordan are attracting Chinese new energy vehicle companies to build factories and invest in production bases with various preferential subsidy policies.

With the blessing of Middle East capital, a large number of new car-making forces have begun to regard the Middle East as the first stop to go overseas.

Abu Dhabi CYVN Holdings made a strategic investment of approximately US$1.1 billion in NIO through a private placement of new shares and the transfer of old shares;

The Ministry of Investment of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia also signed a cooperation agreement with Human Horizons, the parent company of Gaohe Automobile, and the Saudi side will invest a total of 5.6 billion US dollars (about 40.1 billion yuan), and the two sides plan to establish a joint venture to engage in automobile research and development, manufacturing and sales;

Saudi Arabia and Foxconn jointly established the first local car brand CEER, BMW authorized technical cooperation, Foxconn OEM, and also plans to cooperate with Hyundai Motor to build a factory with an annual output of 50,000 vehicles;

Great Wall Huaguan, the parent company of Qiantu Auto, signed a cooperation agreement with Manaseer Group, the largest privately held company in Jordan, to form a joint venture to serve the Middle East and North Africa market.

Faraday Future Executive with Abu Dhabi Capital

Looking at the strategy of the oil tycoons collectively "throwing a lot of money", Jia Yueting, who is short of money and anxious, is naturally red-eyed, and all of them are envious: "There are many sovereign wealth funds in the Middle East that attach great importance to the AI electric mobility industry. ”

It's just that the oil tyrants are not stupid, and the brands they cooperate with can basically achieve mass production, and Jia Yueting, who makes PPT cars, doesn't seem to be very cold.

It seems that if he wants to fool the money of the financiers, Jia Yueting first has to complete his "bold ambition" to complete mass production in 2024.