(Yicai Global) April 19 -- Shares of 360 Security Technology jumped after the Chinese internet security giant's founder was seen at Hozon New Energy Automobile's booth at Auto Shanghai 2021.

The antivirus software developer's stock price [SHA:601360] jumped as much as 5.1 percent to as high as CNY14.66 (USD2.30) intraday after founder Zhou Hongyi's appearance.

The Beijing-headquartered tech firm has been in talks with the Zhejiang province-based car manufacturer for more than two months about cooperation, an insider exclusively told Yicai Global.

"What is sure is that Zhou hopes 360 can get a slice of the smart vehicle network security business pie," said the person. "Whether he wants 360 to enter the new energy vehicle field, just as Xiaomi did, is still unclear."

Before this, Zhou had led a team to visit Hozon's plant where the latter develops its Nezha-branded new energy vehicles to know more about the cars, the same source added.

Hozon sold about 15,000 Nezha cars in 2020, up by 51 percent from 2019 and ranking fifth amongst Chinese NEV startups. As of last November, three Nezha models had been unveiled after the first one started selling in November 2018.

Editors: Liao Shumin, Emmi Laine, Xiao Yi