Travis Kalanick Looks to Acquire U.S. Arm of Pony AI
According to a recent report from The New York Times, Uber founder Travis Kalanick is exploring options to purchase the U.S. arm of Chinese autonomous vehicle company Pony AI. Kalanick is said to be collaborating with investors to secure funding for the acquisition, with Uber potentially playing a role in facilitating the deal.
Pony AI, which went public last year with a market cap of approximately $4.5 billion, has been preparing its U.S. arm for a sale or spinoff since 2022, even going as far as creating a separate version of its source code.
Acquiring Pony AI would mark Kalanick’s return to the self-driving vehicle industry, following his departure from Uber in 2017. During his tenure at Uber, the company was actively developing its own autonomous vehicle technology, until a tragic incident in 2018 where one of its test vehicles was involved in a fatal accident. Subsequently, Kalanick’s successor, Dara Khosrowshahi, sold Uber’s self-driving division to Aurora, an autonomous trucking startup. Under Khosrowshahi’s leadership, Uber shifted its focus to forming partnerships with companies like Waymo for self-driving technology.
In recent years, Kalanick has shown a growing interest in robotics through his involvement with CloudKitchens, a ghost kitchen company. Reports suggest that he would continue to oversee CloudKitchens on a daily basis if he were to acquire Pony AI.
Speaking at an event in March, Kalanick expressed his belief that Uber was on the brink of catching up to industry leader Waymo in the autonomous vehicle space before his departure. Reflecting on Khosrowshahi’s decision to sell the self-driving division, Kalanick remarked on the missed opportunity for Uber to have its own autonomous ride-sharing product.
