Just when you think you've seen it all, Jia Yueting proves that nothing can stop his insane march forward.
InvestorDaily has learned of jaw-dropping news from across the Pacific that has once again shattered the auto industry's reality: Jia Yueting, the infamous founder known for fleeing to the U.S. and eternally promising to "return next week," has secured more funding. According to media reports, his company, Faraday Future (FF), has signed a financing agreement for approximately $105 million (about 750 million RMB). Including other financing rounds in 2025, FF has now raised over $5 billion in its eleven-year history. It seems American and global capital are still "unhesitatingly" willing to suffocate for Jia's dream.
This is a moment of magical realism, the kind rarely seen in the history of global business.
Jia Yueting, widely considered China's biggest charlatan, has managed to turn the tide of his automotive crisis in the United States—a country with far less fertile ground for EV manufacturing than China. Jia's legendary life story is something even the most outlandish viral TikTok-style dramas couldn't invent. All conventional logic seems to fail when applied to him, yet he remains this bewildering figure whose dreams someone is always willing to bankroll.
This time, it appears Jia’s venture is "getting on the right track," and the new $105 million isn't just smoke and mirrors. At the end of June 2025, after six months of lamenting his struggles on livestreams, Jia suddenly announced FF's latest progress to the world. He unveiled a new model called the "FX Super One" (FX) and launched the "6x4 Technical Architecture," a form of embodied AI built around the vehicle.
An ecstatic Jia announced he had found an independent dealership in Las Vegas and signed a deposit agreement for 100 FX units. The FX is being marketed as the first "AI-MPV" (Multi-Purpose Vehicle) under an FF brand. Equipped with LiDAR and a high-level intelligent driving system, it boasts L4 autonomous driving capabilities. Jia claims, "The total B2B pre-orders for the FX have already exceeded 4,100 units."
Without a doubt, Jia has a new story to tell in America. By shifting his focus from individual consumers to businesses and sole proprietors, he has sidestepped the fierce competition of the global EV market and painted a brand-new, tantalizing picture for investors. Not only is he expanding his enterprise client base, but FF also plans to hold an automotive industry symposium at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, D.C., on July 23rd.
The purpose of this meeting? Jia wants to discuss the future of the new energy industry with U.S. members of Congress and officials, touching on topics like auto tariffs and subsidies. His stated goal is to "help the United States revitalize its domestic new energy vehicle supply chain." Simply put, Jia is done duping the common folk; he’s leveling up his game to win over American corporations and officials.
It is this pivot that has made FF shine again in the eyes of global capital. Of course, this is tied to Jia's "visionary foresight." After a decade of selling his dream to global investors, he realized the consumer-facing (B2C) story was becoming impossible to tell. According to an analysis by the popular AI model DeepSeek, "The global new energy B2C market is intensely competitive, with a clear pattern of market leaders consolidating power while smaller players are eliminated."
The market is dominated by a duopoly: BYD and Tesla together command over 35% of the global new energy vehicle market share. Mature Chinese auto giants hold over 50% market share in regions like Southeast Asia and the Middle East. Below the top tier, the battle is just as brutal. With new energy vehicle penetration breaking 41.9% in 2024, second and third-tier brands are locked in a price war for the remaining scraps, accelerating an industry-wide shakeup. In this environment, FF had little chance of successfully selling its B2C story.
So, in a stroke of genius, Jia leaped from B2C to B2B, sidestepping his rivals and rekindling hope for investors looking for a return.
"Telling multiple versions of the same car story to fleece investors again and again." Jia Yueting is likely the only person on the planet who could pull this off.
For a decade, Jia has used FF's "original divine car" to woo global capital. In that time, wielding nothing more than a PowerPoint and a silver tongue, he raised tens of billions of dollars and even took FF public in the U.S. This is despite delivering only 11 cars to the consumer market—all of which were later recalled, and even those 11 sales were questioned as being fraudulent. Yet, none of this has hindered his spectacular success in America. In 2024, he even managed to ride the wave of hype around building a "US-China automotive bridge."
He turned himself into a global new energy "influencer," boosting FF's stock price and capturing a legion of "believers" in both China and the U.S. With these followers in hand, Jia launched a series of livestreams, mastering the art of monetizing attention. He poured his heart out, speaking of the hardships of "original car manufacturing" until his viewers were nearly moved to tears. In reality, he was shoring up his existing B2C investors and supporters to pave the way for his "new vision."
That new vision is the FX. And one must admit, Jia has a vivid imagination. He painted a picture of four B2B customer profiles for the FX: existing partners, car rental companies, MCNs (influencer agencies) for livestreaming e-commerce, and real estate agencies.
The partners are essentially the "bag holders" of Jia's venture. They provide core components and software for FF and the FX, with no guarantee of ever recouping their costs, and now they are expected to buy the "AI-MPV" as well. FF believes rental companies will have immense interest in an L4 autonomous vehicle, which could boost their performance to unprecedented levels.
But the most interesting targets are the MCNs and real estate firms. According to FF's vision, the "AI-MPV" will be a traffic-generating machine for influencer agencies, who can learn from their counterparts on Douyin (China's TikTok) to "monetize traffic." As for real estate agents facing a sluggish market, they can create a "car and home" ecosystem.
Bizarrely, American businesses and entrepreneurs seem to be buying this vision. They are rushing to purchase the "AI-MPV," delivering over 4,100 paid pre-orders to a company whose production capacity is, to put it mildly, a mystery. While 4,100 units is a paltry figure compared to the initial launch sales of any major Chinese EV maker, the point wasn't sales volume; it was to paint a compelling new B2B narrative for investors.
And global capital listened, leading to the latest $105 million financing round. When the news broke, the Chinese internet exploded. Chinese netizens were completely baffled, and investors in the domestic VC/PE and industrial capital scenes were stunned. The B2B new energy vehicle market is notoriously difficult. Selling to businesses involves navigating complex, multi-level decision-making chains, technical reviews, and budget approvals—a far harder task than selling to an individual. While selling one car to a consumer is easy, selling to a corporation is not. Only a select few top-tier automakers can manage it. Furthermore, B2B payment cycles are long, making it an unworkable model for a company like FF that has been bleeding money for years.
What investors in China wouldn't even look at, Jia Yueting has somehow brought to life in America. Even more audacious, Jia isn't just targeting B2B; he's going for B2G (business-to-government), aiming to win over Washington D.C. He wants FF to be "the automaker that sets the rules and standards for new energy in America" and to "help the U.S. revitalize its domestic new energy supply chain and build a US-China auto bridge."
This "bridge" was a concept he pitched in 2024, claiming he wanted to change America's insular approach to new energy. That narrative, drawn up in 2024, is what secured him several rounds of funding in the first half of 2025.
For a long time, the U.S. has been divided on new energy, caught between two powerful forces: the old guard of traditional finance, which controls global oil and opposes the green trend, and the new guard of tech and innovation, which sees new energy as the future. This conflict is what created the opportunity for Tesla to build its factory in China. Jia Yueting, in his breathtaking ambition, wants to leverage his unique influencer status to gradually shift America's attitude. In a reverse of the "catfish effect"—where Tesla's entry shook up and modernized China's auto industry—Jia wants to use China's supply chain innovations to reform America's.
The first step is to revitalize the local U.S. supply chain, and he wants to bring American lawmakers and officials along for the ride. If he succeeds in getting the U.S. government on board, he kills two birds with one stone. First, FF's path to raising funds for his dream will become even smoother. Second, he will have found the ultimate "bag holder" for his early investors, who would likely stop pressuring him to actually produce cars.
He's passing the dream off to American authorities and corporate clients. If it works, he will have created the ultimate closed loop of dreams.
Recently, entertainment media reported that Jia's ex-wife, Gan Wei, visited him in the U.S. with their children, bringing him traditional peach crisps, portraying a scene of domestic bliss. Jia's life in America appears quite comfortable. After the collapse of his LeEco empire, he fled to the U.S. with roughly $3 billion in debt. But he pulled a move that even Evergrande's Hui Ka Yan couldn't manage: he filed for personal bankruptcy reorganization after divorcing his wife, effectively resolving his personal debts using FF equity and its U.S. stock listing.
The creditors who once chased him for money became FF shareholders, while Jia, protected by loopholes in the U.S. legal system, rests easy. He once declared he has "no debt under the U.S. legal system." While he may be debt-free in America, he still owes money in China. As of the first half of 2025, Jia's remaining debt in China is approximately 14 billion RMB (around $1.9 billion). At the time of the LeEco collapse, his total enforceable debt in China was about 34 billion RMB. Over the past decade, the runaway tycoon has quietly paid back over 10 billion RMB.
With FF generating no profit, how did he repay it? The most likely answer is by using money from American and global investors to plug the holes in his debt. By painting grand visions for over a decade, he has raised more than $5 billion, effectively trapping his new capital partners in his old debt problems. Now, Jia's main pressure is to figure out how to help these investors get their money back. His solution? Use the B2B and B2G narratives to lure American businesses and the U.S. government into the trap, so they can all "suffocate" for the dream together.
On July 17th, perhaps realizing they were being set up to be the next bag holders, U.S. authorities issued a "Wells Notice," accusing Jia of violating several anti-fraud provisions of federal securities laws. However, a Wells Notice is merely an informal warning from the SEC before civil litigation. The recipient has a chance to negotiate with the SEC before formal charges are filed.
For a man like Jia Yueting, one suspects this is just a minor setback. He always seems to turn crisis into opportunity.
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