Momenta

Momenta is a Chinese company that describes itself as a physical AI company. The term is generally used for AI systems that act in the physical world rather than only on screens; for Momenta, that world is mainly the road. The company was founded in 2016 by Cao Xudong, a former Microsoft researcher who is its chief executive.^[1][4]

From research to production cars

Momenta's business rests on getting its driving technology into cars that manufacturers actually sell. By the end of 2025, more than 680,000 vehicles had adopted its technology, and its customers included Toyota, Mercedes-Benz, SAIC, General Motors, BYD and Audi.^[4] Before listing, the company said its mass-production business had passed one million vehicles and that nine of the world's ten largest carmakers were partners.^[1] Its production programmes were deployed in more than ten countries across Asia, Europe, Oceania, Latin America and North Africa.^[1]

The R7 world model and robotaxis

In April 2026, Momenta's R7 world model had its mass-production debut. The company says it supports passenger cars, unmanned logistics vehicles, driverless trucks, robotaxis and robots, so it covers more types of machines than cars alone.^[1] Its Robotaxi business works with Uber, Grab, Lumo and SAIC Mobility and has been deployed in Asia, Europe and the Middle East.^[3]

The numbers behind the listing

Revenue grew from 743 million yuan in 2023 to 2.413 billion yuan in 2025, a compound annual growth rate above 80 percent, while gross margin rose from 17.5 percent to 71.6 percent.^[1] The company was still losing money: net losses were 2.57 billion yuan in 2023, 3.206 billion yuan in 2024 and 3.458 billion yuan in 2025, a cumulative loss above 9.2 billion yuan.^[2] Research and development spending in 2025 was 1.869 billion yuan, equal to 77.5 percent of revenue.^[2]

The Hong Kong IPO

Momenta listed on the main board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange on 8 July 2026 under the code 6880.HK.^[1] The IPO was priced at 295.6 Hong Kong dollars per share for about 22.93 million shares, raising about 6.8 billion Hong Kong dollars.^[1] Demand was heavy: the public offer was about 414 times oversubscribed, and the international placing drew orders worth more than 100 billion Hong Kong dollars.^[1] Fourteen cornerstone investors subscribed about 3 billion Hong Kong dollars. GIC and Fidelity International each led with 100 million US dollars, while Mercedes-Benz and BYD took part with 25 million and 15 million US dollars.^[1]

Where it sits

Taken together, these facts describe a company that had turned research into paying production programmes for carmakers: revenue was growing quickly, and gross margin rose sharply. At the same time, Momenta was spending most of its revenue on research and development and recording growing net losses.^[1][2] Two of the cornerstone investors, Mercedes-Benz and BYD, were also carmakers, and they invested alongside GIC and Fidelity International.^[1]