The announcement marks yet another foray beyond autos for
the company and Li, its ambitious founder. The new company, called Hubei Xingji
Shidai Technology, has signed a strategic cooperation agreement with the Wuhan
Economic and Technological Development Zone to establish its headquarters in
the central Chinese city where it will develop smart devices including
smartphones, according to Geely.
Public records show that Li currently owns 55 percent of the
company.
In a statement, Geely said that Xingji Shidai will position
itself in the premium segment of the smartphone market.
"There is a close connection in technologies within
intelligent vehicle cockpits and smartphone technologies," Li said in a
statement.
"The major trend in the coming future is to create user
ecosystems across borders and provide users with a more convenient, smarter and
seamlessly connected multi-screen experience."
Li is perceived as an agile opportunist who is making a
stream of startup bets - on ventures like flying cars and helicopter taxis - to
prepare for the new age of autos, Reuters has reported.
Besides vehicles, Geely has a Danish bank, a startup
developing vehicle control software technology, and Geespace, a China-based
firm which received approval from Beijing this year to make low-orbit
satellites that will be the eyes in the sky for fully autonomous machines. The
scale of his investments - spanning Europe, Southeast Asia, China and the
United States - is unique among Chinese auto firms.
China's smartphone market has matured since an initial boom
in the past decade. Shipments of handsets to China for the year 2020 hit 330
million units, marking an 11 percent annual decline.
Despite the sector's shrinking size, major brands have
increased their market share after US sanctions caused the once-dominant Huawei
to retreat from the market.
Xiaomi, a longtime Huawei rival, boosted its sales
domestically and abroad and ranked as the number-two brand worldwide this year
for the first time.
In March, Xiaomi founder Lei Jun said the company would
formally enter the electric vehicle market and invest $10 billion in the sector
over the next 10 years. © Reuters