BRIEF: Black Sesame agrees to buy system-on-chips solutions provider

Autonomous vehicle chipmaker Black Sesame International Holding Ltd. (2533.HK) said on Wednesday it signed a non-binding agreement to acquire a developer of cost-effective and low power consumption AI system-on-chips solutions. It said it would acquire the company’s shares and provide it with additional capital, though it did not give the company’s name or total value of the deal.

Black Sesame said the purchase would enable it “to offer full coverage of automotive-grade computing chips of all levels and provide full-scenario solutions for intelligent vehicles. Meanwhile, the possible acquisition will also facilitate the group’s products to expand into a wider range of robotics application with comprehensive AI inference chip products and solutions,” it added.

Black Sesame’s revenue grew 51.8% last year to 474 million yuan ($66 million), while its adjusted loss widened slightly to 1.3 billion yuan from 1.25 billion yuan in 2023.

Black Sesame’s stock opened up 2.5% on Thursday but later gave back most of those gains and was up 0.4% in afternoon trading. At its Wednesday close of HK$18.24, the stock is down 35% from its IPO price of HK$28 from last August.