AsianFin -- Hello Inc. announced on Tuesday that its self-driving taxi arm has secured a strategic investment from Alibaba Group, marking a major step in the deepening collaboration between the two companies in autonomous driving.

The investment will see Hello and Alibaba expand their partnership into areas including intelligent driving large models, computing power platforms, and robotaxi operations. Both sides aim to accelerate the commercialization and large-scale rollout of robotaxi services in China, Hello said in a statement.