Huawei and Seres are reshaping the partnership behind the AITO brand, giving the automaker control over product, marketing, sales and service while Huawei steps back into an enabling role, according to Chinese business outlet Huxiu and other local media.
The adjustment, reported by Cailianshe on September 15, marks the deepest restructuring since the two companies began their "smart selection" cooperation in 2021. Under the new model, Seres will adopt an "exclusive dealership" approach, with AITO sales channels spun off from Huawei's Harmony Intelligent Mobility (HIM) network. Some existing HIM stores will be transferred to Seres and will display and sell only AITO models. Huawei has not withdrawn entirely: AITO remains one of the five "jie" brands under HIM, sources told Time Finance.
Why Seres wants the wheel
The immediate motivation is money. Seres swung to a net loss of 1.72 billion yuan (about $242 million) in the first half of 2026, after a 2.94 billion yuan profit a year earlier. Revenue fell 7.87% year on year to 57.49 billion yuan. Second-quarter losses alone reached 2.47 billion yuan, including 1.86 billion yuan in impairments tied to scrapping older non-patented technology and ending some development projects.
Chairman Zhang Xinghai has blamed rising input costs: storage chip prices jumped from 20 yuan to nearly 100 yuan each, and lithium carbonate from 80,000 yuan to 180,000 yuan per tonne, adding 15,000 to 20,000 yuan to the cost of each AITO vehicle. But the bigger drain is on the sales side. Seres' 2025 selling expenses hit 24.19 billion yuan, up 26.1%, with 22.95 billion yuan going to advertising, showroom construction and service fees. That 14.65% selling-expense ratio exceeds SAIC's and approaches BYD's, even though Seres' revenue is only a quarter to a fifth of theirs.
Much of that money flowed to Huawei's channel. AITO vehicles have sold mainly through Huawei stores, and analysts have called the service fees a "toll" paid to the channel. Seres' Hong Kong IPO prospectus shows purchases from its largest supplier, widely identified as the Huawei ecosystem, totalling about 75 billion yuan from 2022 to the first half of 2025, with the share of total procurement rising from 14.5% to 33%. Seres has stated publicly that it has no profit-sharing arrangement with Huawei, though media estimates of an 8% channel fee plus 2% technology royalty have circulated.
Seres has been preparing for independence for two years. In 2024 it bought 919 AITO trademarks and 44 design patents from Huawei for 2.5 billion yuan, and invested 11.5 billion yuan for a 10% stake in Yinwang, the entity spun off from Huawei's automotive business unit. Its Hong Kong listing in November 2025 raised net proceeds of 14.02 billion Hong Kong dollars, with about a fifth earmarked for marketing channels and overseas expansion. Seres also holds about 73.15 billion yuan in cash, though that buffer shrank by 35.36 billion yuan in the first half.
Huawei's attention is elsewhere
Huawei's technology is no longer exclusive to AITO. Its Qiankun ADAS and Harmony cockpit now appear in more than 60 models priced from 150,000 yuan to over one million yuan, and in April 2026 the new AITO M9 launched alongside models from other brands using the same latest technology. AITO's share of HIM sales has fallen from nearly 90% in 2024 to about 67% in the first half of 2026, and to roughly 45.5% in July alone, as sibling brands Shangjie, Zhijie and Xiangjie compete for Huawei store space.
Seres' wholesale deliveries have slid from 10.29% year-on-year growth in April to declines of 50.86% in July and 49.68% in August. Sources said negotiations over the restructuring lasted one to two months, delaying model refreshes. The company swung to a loss in the first half of 2026, with a second-quarter net loss of 2.47 billion yuan including 1.86 billion yuan in impairments.
The restructuring is not a divorce, analysts say. Huawei remains an 80% shareholder in Yinwang, with Seres and Avatr holding 10% each, and Zhang Xinghai sits on Yinwang's board. Huawei's automotive unit turned its first annual profit in 2024, with revenue of 26.35 billion yuan, up 474.4%. As Huawei focuses resources on accelerating the success of the other four "jie" brands, handing AITO's heavy operational work to Seres fits its asset-light platform strategy.
The real test now is the profit-sharing formula per vehicle, which sources say will also change. Seres must prove it can sustain AITO's premium pricing - 400,000 to 500,000 yuan - without Huawei's full backing, while rebuilding its own sales network. The company currently has only 380 dedicated AITO user centres versus the 700-plus Huawei stores it relied on. Whether the new model clears the air or deepens the pain will depend on the ramp-up of refreshed M9, M6 and M7 models and how quickly the new channel structure takes hold.
