Uber Technologies Inc. is in talks with founder Travis Kalanick to help fund his acquisition of the U.S. arm of Chinese self-driving firm Pony AI Inc., the New York Times reported. Shares of both companies jumped in June 26 trading.
The talks are preliminary, according to the Times, citing two unnamed people. Kalanick would run Pony if the deal is completed while continuing to lead his current company, CloudKitchens, the report cited the people as saying. Financial details of the potential transaction were not known, the report said.
Uber shares and Pony AI’s American depositary receipts jumped to session highs on the report, with Uber’s stock gaining as much as 3.8% and Pony’s as much as 21%.
A spokesperson for Uber declined to comment on the deal talks. Pony AI, Kalanick and CloudKitchens did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Kalanick was ousted as CEO at Uber in 2017 and left the board in 2019, severing, at the time, his last ties to the company he founded.
Uber has moved quickly over the past year to prove that it can be the go-to commercial platform for driverless carmakers, even as it’s evolved its strategy from developing self-driving technology in-house when Kalanick was at the helm. It’s struck more than a dozen partnerships with autonomous vehicle makers and software makers and has invested in some of them, too.
Skeptical Wall Street investors, however, have forecast Uber’s demise with the growing popularity of robotaxi rides offered by Alphabet Inc.’s Waymo and the recent pilot of similar services from Tesla Inc.
Bloomberg News reported in November that Uber was in talks to invest in Pony AI’s U.S. initial public offering, though the final size of the transaction hasn’t been disclosed by the companies. Uber has partnered with Pony to launch commercial robotaxi services outside the U.S., starting in the Middle East.
Pony is headquartered in China but has research operations and testing permits in the U.S. and Europe. Toyota Motor Corp. is its top shareholder, with a nearly 16% stake in the company, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Source: https://www.ttnews.com/
