Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving car division, today confirmed that it has set up shop in China amid a broader effort by the search giant to return to Asia’s biggest market.

The statement came after a Reuters report late Thursday revealed the existence of a Shanghai subsidiary that Waymo had opened earlier this year. According to a regulatory filing cited by the news agency, Waymo established the unit as a wholly owned company in March under the name Huimo Business Consulting (Shanghai) Co.

The document offers a small glimpse into Chinese branch’s operations. The unit was launched in Shanghai’s free trade zone with registered capital of 3.5 million yuan, or about $509,000, and has a number of focus areas. They include providing services related to the production of self-driving car parts, as well as business and logistics consulting.

An anonymous source told TechCrunch that Waymo’s Chinese subsidiary will focus on building out a supplier network to support its autonomous driving push. The group apparently doesn’t have any plans to start operating any vehicles locally, at least not in the foreseeable future. Waymo is currently its piloting self-driving taxis in the greater Phoenix area with help from partners such Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The new Chinese self-driving car subsidiary adds another dimension to Google LLC’s push to re-establish a local presence. The search giant exited the country in 2010 and has recently been working to renew local operations in various forms. The plan reportedly includes a project to develop a censored search engine for the Chinese market, an initiative that has triggered backlash among Google employees.

According to another recent leak, the company is in talks with Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. and other two local firms to bring its cloud platform to the country. Google earlier opened a research center in Shanghai to support internal artificial intelligence projects.

Photo: Waymo