Catena-X Expands Global Collaboration: Tripartite Letter of Intent Signed in Suzhou
This agreement marks the beginning of a joint initiative to establish trusted cross-border data spaces based on the Catena-X architecture.
Suzhou, July 17, 2025 – Catena-X has taken a major step toward international interoperability and global data space alignment. During the China–Germany Automotive Industry Data Space Cooperation Salon at the Suzhou International Data Port, Catena-X signed a tripartite Letter of Intent (LoI) with Sungent Digital Technology and the Industrial Internet and IoT Research Institute of CAICT.
This agreement marks the beginning of a joint initiative to establish trusted cross-border data spaces based on the Catena-X architecture. The aim is to strengthen collaboration between the Chinese and European automotive industries and to promote the secure and sovereign exchange of industrial data at scale.
The event brought together key stakeholders from CAICT, GIZ, Bosch Suzhou, Jinlong Automobile, and other partners to explore how shared standards, regulatory compatibility, and open collaboration can support digital transformation across the value chain. The new partnership is also supported through the “Sino-German Dialogue on Industrial Data Ecosystems,” a dedicated forum for ongoing technical and strategic exchange.
“This partnership reflects our continued effort to deepen collaboration with China, where we see both strong technological capabilities and a clear strategic commitment to trusted data spaces,” said Frank Göller, Member of the Catena-X GAMS-Board. “Through multiple high-level delegation visits in both directions, we have built strong mutual understanding. We are now moving from dialogue to delivery by jointly creating sovereign, secure, and interoperable data spaces that connect our industries on a technical and operational level.”
Together, the three partners will co-develop technologies, align data standards, and drive joint innovation. The work will build on the proven Catena-X reference architecture and align with both EU and Chinese digital strategies. The goal is to enable compliant and efficient cross-border data sharing to support critical industry use cases such as supply chain transparency, product carbon footprint tracking, and supply network resilience.
This collaboration complements the strategic agreement signed earlier this year between Catena-X, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers (CAAM), and the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA). It reinforces the Catena-X mission: to build a global, open, and sovereign data ecosystem for the entire automotive industry and beyond.
About Catena-X
Catena-X is the first end-to-end, collaborative and open data ecosystem for the automotive industry, connecting all players along the value chain. The Catena-X association acts as a neutral governance to enable standardized, interoperable and data-sovereign collaboration and drive innovation, increase efficiency and compliance across the entire data ecosystem. Catena-X is compliant with international data space standards and serves as a model for all Manufacturing-X initiatives by shaping the development of standardized data ecosystems in other industries. Founded in 2021, the association has hubs in the USA, China, Spain, Sweden and France and more than 300 individuals from various players in the automotive industry working in more than 40 expert groups to develop future standards.