Faraday Future, the electric-vehicle start-up backed by former Leshi Internet Information and Technology Corp (LeEco, 樂視) chairman Jia Yueting (賈躍亭), halted plans to build a US$1 billion factory in Nevada as the troubled tycoon fights for the survival of his Chinese car business.
The plant in Las Vegas that was due to build Faraday’s 1,050-horsepower FF 91 has been put on hold, an e-mailed statement said.
Faraday earlier this year claimed the FF 91 would be the world’s fastest electric car, beating souped-up versions of Tesla Inc’s Model S sedan.
Photo: AFP
“We are in the process of identifying a manufacturing facility that presents a faster path to start-of-production and aligns with future strategic options,” Faraday said in the statement.
The halt marks another setback for one of China’s most outspoken and controversial entrepreneurs. Jia made a fortune building LeEco into China’s answer to Netflix, then struggled as he tried to expand into smartphones, movies and autos.
Amid a cash crunch, Jia last week ceded the chief executive officer role at Leshi and said he would step down from its board to focus on serving as chairman of LeEco’s auto unit.
Construction on Faraday’s Nevada factory paused at one point late last year when the facility’s building contractor claimed payments had stopped. At least two other suppliers, including a car-seat maker and media-services provider, took legal action to force Faraday to pay its debts.
The state’s agreement with Faraday required the company to fully invest a minimum of US$1 billion to receive incentives, the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development said in an e-mailed statement.
“The state recognized both the opportunity a large manufacturing facility could provide as well as the inherent risk associated with a startup company attempting this endeavor,” the governor’s office said. “The agreement with Faraday held Nevada’s citizens harmless from the risk associated with this project.”
Nevada Treasurer Dan Schwartz questioned Jia’s plans for the electric-car plant there last year.
He called the billionaire’s strategy of borrowing to finance so many new businesses so quickly unsustainable.
“This is all fantasy land,” he said at the time. “The best analogy is the emperor’s new clothes. There’s nothing there.”
China has claimed a breakthrough in developing homegrown chipmaking equipment, an important step in overcoming US sanctions designed to thwart Beijing’s semiconductor goals. State-linked organizations are advised to use a new laser-based immersion lithography machine with a resolution of 65 nanometers or better, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) said in an announcement this month. Although the note does not specify the supplier, the spec marks a significant step up from the previous most advanced indigenous equipment — developed by Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Group Co (SMEE, 上海微電子) — which stood at about 90 nanometers. MIIT’s claimed advances last
ISSUES: Gogoro has been struggling with ballooning losses and was recently embroiled in alleged subsidy fraud, using Chinese-made components instead of locally made parts Gogoro Inc (睿能創意), the nation’s biggest electric scooter maker, yesterday said that its chairman and CEO Horace Luke (陸學森) has resigned amid chronic losses and probes into the company’s alleged involvement in subsidy fraud. The board of directors nominated Reuntex Group (潤泰集團) general counsel Tamon Tseng (曾夢達) as the company’s new chairman, Gogoro said in a statement. Ruentex is Gogoro’s biggest stakeholder. Gogoro Taiwan general manager Henry Chiang (姜家煒) is to serve as acting CEO during the interim period, the statement said. Luke’s departure came as a bombshell yesterday. As a company founder, he has played a key role in pushing for the
EUROPE ON HOLD: Among a flurry of announcements, Intel said it would postpone new factories in Germany and Poland, but remains committed to its US expansion Intel Corp chief executive officer Pat Gelsinger has landed Amazon.com Inc’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) as a customer for the company’s manufacturing business, potentially bringing work to new plants under construction in the US and boosting his efforts to turn around the embattled chipmaker. Intel and AWS are to coinvest in a custom semiconductor for artificial intelligence computing — what is known as a fabric chip — in a “multiyear, multibillion-dollar framework,” Intel said in a statement on Monday. The work would rely on Intel’s 18A process, an advanced chipmaking technology. Intel shares rose more than 8 percent in late trading after the
GLOBAL ECONOMY: Policymakers have a choice of a small 25 basis-point cut or a bold cut of 50 basis points, which would help the labor market, but might reignite inflation The US Federal Reserve is gearing up to announce its first interest rate cut in more than four years on Wednesday, with policymakers expected to debate how big a move to make less than two months before the US presidential election. Senior officials at the US central bank including Fed Chairman Jerome Powell have in recent weeks indicated that a rate cut is coming this month, as inflation eases toward the bank’s long-term target of two percent, and the labor market continues to cool. The Fed, which has a dual mandate from the US Congress to act independently to ensure