Waymo is setting up shop in Shanghai, giving parent company Alphabet Inc. GOOGL, -0.05% a foothold in China as it considers rebooting its Google search engine behind the Great Firewall.
Waymo, a leading player in the global race to develop driverless cars, opened an office in Shanghai’s free trade zone, according to a filing with China’s National Enterprise Credit Information Publicity System, a business-registration website.
The new subsidiary, with 3.5 million yuan ($508,000) in registered capital, will design and test autonomous vehicle products and parts and may also handle business consultancy and supply chain management and logistics inquiries, the filing said.
The filing listed Waymo LLC as the only shareholder of the Shanghai subsidiary. Kevin Vosen, Waymo’s general counsel, is listed as chairman of the new company. Waymo executives including Chief Executive John Krafcik are also listed as senior representatives of the Chinese company.
Waymo representatives couldn’t be reached for comment. The filing was dated May 22, but was first disclosed this week by a Shanghai-based state media outlet.
An expanded version of this report appears on WSJ.com.
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