Samsung Electronics Co., South Korean tech giant, world’s leading memory chip and consumer electronics maker, eying automotive electronics as new growth engine has launched a $300-million fund that will invest in advanced auto technologies.

Samsung Electronics announced on Thursday that it has created a new $300-million fund dubbed Samsung Automotive Innovation Fund that will invest in startups and developers of automotive and autonomous driving technologies such as smart sensors, machine vision, and safety solutions.

With the fund, the company will spend 75 million euro ($89.3 million) in TTTech that it has formed a strategic partnership. Based in Austria, TTTech is global leader in networking and safety controls solution technology. Its solutions have been used to power Volkswagen Group’s automated piloted driving system as well as networked computer systems for Boeing 787 Dreamliner and NASA’s Orion spacecraft.

The latest investment follows a series of Samsung Electronics’ aggressive investment in other overseas companies developing connected and autonomous car technologies. The Korean tech giant has already funded AImotive and Renovo for automated driving, Quanergy, TetraVue, and Oculii for sensors, Autotalks and Valens for connectivity, and Graphcore for high-performance computing.

Along with the new fund creation and investment announcement, Samsung Electronics unveiled a new team dedicated to the development of connected technologies at Harman International Industries, a U.S-based connected car, audio and IoT solution developer that it took over earlier this year. The new team, called Autonomous/ADAS Strategic Business Unit (SBU), will cooperate with the Samsung Strategy and Innovation Center on developing autonomous driving technology as well as Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS) solutions, the company said.

“There is already a high demand for ADAS solutions, and that demand is rapidly growing with the advancements in connected cars and autonomous driving,” said Dinesh Paliwal, president and CEO of Harman. “This strategic business unit demonstrates Samsung’s and Harman’s commitment to answer that call.”

The Korean tech giant has recently obtained licenses for on-road testing of autonomous driving software and hardware under development in Korea and California, the U.S. but stated that it has no intention for entering car-manufacturing industry. Instead, it vowed to maintain its partnership with automakers and automotive tech firms on advancing automotive technology.

At 2:16 p.m. on Friday, shares of Samsung Electronics were up 0.16 percent at 2,519,000 won ($2,224.09).

By Kim Dong-eun

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