Beijing (PingWest)—Ride-hailing giant Didi Chuxing is planning to raise up to $500 million for its self-driving unit valued at approximately $6 billion, Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

The new proceeds will help Didi speed up mass production of driverless vehicles and invest in technologies like artificial intelligence chips, said the source.

The autonomous driving department, which was established in 2016 and became independent of Didi Chuxing in 2019, completed a $300 million round of funding last month.

China's self-driving industry is gaining momentum with the influx of massive investment. According to enterprise data platform Qichacha, 43.63 billion yuan ($6.70 billion) flowed into the autonomous driving industry in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 136.9%.

Pony.ai raised $400 million from Toyota in February and received more than $1 billion in investment within five years. WeRide bagged $310 million in the latest round of financing completed in January, marking that the four-year-old company has raised more than $500 million in total.

Didi Chuxing, which operates in 14 countries outside China, is reportedly considering an initial public offering in New York or Hong Kong, with a target valuation of at least $100 billion. The Chinese ride-hailing giant counts SoftBank, Tencent, and Toyota as its investors.