China's Pony.ai on Thursday saw its shares drop over 14%, while rival WeRide fell nearly 12% as the autonomous driving companies began trading in Hong Kong.
Pony.ai and WeRide , which are already listed in the U.S., raised 6.71 billion Hong Kong dollars (about $860 million) and HK$2.39 billion, respectively, in their initial public offerings.
The companies are striving to keep pace with larger competitors such as Baidu 's Apollo Go in China and Alphabet 's Waymo in the U.S. amid growing interest in autonomous technologies.
Pony.ai and WeRide, both headquartered in Guangzhou, China, stated that funds would go toward scaling efforts, and the development of Level 4 autonomous driving — a measure of driving automation that does not require human monitoring or intervention under specific environments.
WeRide CEO Tony Xu Han told CNBC that proceeds from the latest fundraising would also be used to boost the company's artificial intelligence capabilities and data center capacity, while Pony.ai CEO James Peng emphasized on building autonomous-driving parking and charging infrastructure, besides AI development.
The CEOs stressed on driver safety as their companies seek global expansion, including in their home markets of China, where they have already begun operating fully autonomous robotaxis in some cities.
New regions the companies are expanding to include the Middle East, Europe and Asian countries such as Singapore. They have yet to receive full approvals to operate their robotaxis in most of those regions.
The permits that both companies have received to test and operate their self-driving vehicles became a contentious issue in the lead up to the listings.
According to local Chinese media reports, WeRide CFO Li Xuan claimed last week that Pony.ai had misinformed investors by understating the number of cities where WeRide had operations, among other issues.
Pony.ai did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the matter.
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