From IPO darling to delisting: Self-driving tech startup TuSimple’s tumultuous journey ends with Nasdaq exit - TechStartups

From IPO darling to delisting: Self-driving tech startup TuSimple’s tumultuous journey ends with Nasdaq exit – TechStartups

Time Stamp: January 17, 2024 9:37 AM
Source Node: 3067352

TuSimple Holdings has decided to delist from the Nasdaq and end its registration with the U.S. securities regulator. This move has led to a 40% decrease in the autonomous driving technology company’s shares during premarket trading.

The news comes just two years after TuSimple fired its co-founder and CEO Xiaodi Hou following an internal probe that revealed links to a Chinese startup. The firing of Hou came a day after The Wall Street Journal published a report citing unnamed sources that TuSimple was facing probes from multiple federal agencies.

The self-driving startup, which went public in 2021, highlighted a decline in its valuation and liquidity, coupled with a significant increase in stock price volatility since its initial public offering. In an announcement on Wednesday, TuSimple attributed these challenges to a rise in interest rates and heightened caution in the market due to macroeconomic uncertainties, impacting investor sentiment for pre-revenue technology companies like itself.

TuSimple anticipates its final day of trading on the U.S. stock exchange to be around Feb. 7. The San Diego-based company had previously disclosed restructuring plans in May, which included layoffs and asset impairments aimed at balancing its cost structure amid a funding crunch in the sector.

The company is currently transforming, and it believes that navigating this process is more feasible as a private firm rather than as a publicly traded one. TuSimple stated, “The benefits of remaining a publicly traded company no longer justify the costs.”

In the nine months ending on Sept. 30, TuSimple reported a loss from operations of $248.6 million, showing improvement from $341.7 million during the same period in 2022, Reuters reported. This improvement is attributed to the company’s efforts in reducing research and development costs and stock-based compensation for employees.

Before going public, the startup raised $120 million in funding to expand long-haul service for fleets and co-develop a commercial self-driving truck with OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. Today, the U.S. trucking industry is estimated to be around $1 trillion.

Founded in 2015 by Jianan Hao, Mo Chen, and Xiaodi Hou, the San Diego-based TuSimple is a global self-driving truck company. The startup is developing a commercial-ready Level 4 (SAE) fully autonomous driving solution for the logistics industry. TuSimple’s trucks are the first and only capable of self-driving from depot to depot and do so every day for its customers.

Time Stamp:

More from TechStartups