SERES Zhang Xinghai has bigger ambitions

Author | Zhou Zhiyu Editor | Zhang Xiaoling Standing in the center of the Chongqing SERES super factory, Zhang Xinghai did not leave much time for the cheers from the audience. On January 13, when an Aito M9 slowly drove out of the testing line, it represented the Aito brand's first achievement of the one million delivery milestone. Zhang Xinghai, founder and chairman of SERES, made a military order on the spot: it took 5 years to reach the first 1 million vehicles, and he demanded that the next 1 million be completed within 2 years. Insiders close to SERES indicated that this only counts the domestic market, and achieving this goal is not difficult. Clearly, SERES, which is deeply tied to Huawei, has greater ambitions. In the past, SERES was often seen as a "testing ground" for validating the smart selection vehicle model within Huawei's territory. The market has always doubted whether this company, which originated from producing motorcycle springs and was once on the brink of bankruptcy, could sustain Huawei's massive traffic in the long term. Zhang Xinghai's statement this time provides a more ambitious expectation for the upcoming ranking battle within the HarmonyOS intelligent driving system. This is a smoke-free hunting game. Everyone is betting on who can first cross the life-and-death line of scaling, and who can hold the ticket for the next decade in Huawei's increasingly crowded "circle of friends." In this round of the game, Zhang Xinghai is pushing 10 billion yuan as chips onto the table. To understand Zhang Xinghai's frenzy, one must first comprehend SERES's astonishing financial statements. SERES is deeply bound to Huawei. SERES's financial report shows that in the three and a half years since their cooperation began in 2021, SERES has paid Huawei a total of 75 billion yuan in procurement fees. In just the first half of 2025, SERES's procurement amount from Huawei reached 20 billion yuan, while SERES's revenue during the same period was only 62.36 billion yuan, meaning that the procurement fees paid to Huawei accounted for 33% of its revenue. Roughly estimating based on the delivery volume of 147,000 Aito vehicles during the same period, it means that for every vehicle sold by SERES, about 136,000 yuan flowed into Huawei's account. In the logic of traditional automobile manufacturing, it is difficult for a single supplier to occupy such a high proportion of procurement. This high cost of 136,000 yuan per vehicle includes core components such as smart cockpits and driving assistance systems, as well as Huawei's substantial channel sales service fees. The cost is not small, but SERES still delivered a profit statement that made its peers envious. Even after paying such high procurement fees, SERES's gross profit margin in the first half of 2025 was still as high as 26.5%. By the third quarter, this figure further climbed to 29.4%, leading the new forces and firmly sitting in the top position. The dominance of the Aito M9 in the luxury car market above 500,000 yuan—where 7 out of every 10 vehicles sold are M9—proves that this 75 billion yuan tuition fee was not only worth it but was a significant profit. However, Zhang Xinghai is clearly not satisfied with this. Once upon a time, SERES (then known as Xiaokang Co., Ltd.) had thin profits and a sluggish stock price, and the first cooperative model SF5 it launched barely made a splash in the market. It was the Aito M5 that helped SERES climb, and the M9 that turned it around completely SERES Vice President Kang Bo recalled that when he joined in 2022, the cumulative sales were less than 30,000 vehicles. Now, standing at the threshold of one million vehicles, Zhang Xinghai's sense of crisis has actually intensified. The cold indifference of the capital market is a mirror. It reflects the market's deep concern about the dilution of SERES's "Chinese content." Under HarmonyOS, the "Five Realms" pattern has formed, and even old aristocrats like Audi have begun to line up to enter the market. As Huawei's resources are destined to shift from "exclusive favor" to "universal benefit," the sales proportion of Aito within the system has dropped from an absolute mainstay to 72%. With the sword of Damocles hanging overhead, Zhang Xinghai can only embrace Huawei while extending his other hand towards the "Plan B." This explains why SERES's R&D expenses have suddenly become so aggressive—during the first three quarters of 2025, R&D investment reached 5.06 billion yuan, nearly matching the total for 2024. Zhang Xinghai is leveraging the current profit window to frantically catch up on "hard technology" such as chassis and manufacturing, attempting to grow a strong body for SERES outside of Huawei's algorithmic brain. He has even begun to try to put eggs in baskets outside of the automotive sector. Collaborating with ByteDance to layout embodied intelligent robots and allocating 20% of the Hong Kong stock fundraising to overseas markets are all efforts to seek even a breath of independence outside the "Huawei ecosystem." Thus, behind Zhang Xinghai's slogan of "recreating a million in two years" is filled with urgency. This is not just a slogan for production capacity; it is a landing operation for future discourse power. He must utilize the monopolistic profits of the Aito M9 in the high-end market to complete SERES's transformation before Huawei's "circle of friends" becomes completely crowded. For this battle, he has paid a hefty price: a "tuition fee" of 75 billion yuan over three and a half years, and nearly 20 billion yuan in real cash spent in the past two years to acquire shares and purchase trademarks. The so-called "gamble" of two years for a million is, in fact, SERES using a more certain future to hedge against uncertainty. After 2026, SERES does not want to be a passenger on Huawei's war chariot; it wants to be the partner holding the ticket and even holding shares. This is the true background of Zhang Xinghai's ambition. Risk Warning and Disclaimer The market has risks, and investment requires caution. This article does not constitute personal investment advice and does not take into account the specific investment goals, financial situation, or needs of individual users. Users should consider whether any opinions, views, or conclusions in this article align with their specific circumstances. Investment based on this is at their own risk.