Self-driving vehicle start-up Aurora bought Ubers Advanced Technologies Group (Uber ATG), which works on self-driving technology. Uber is investing $400 million into Aurora.
The Aurora Driver (self-driving system) consists of sensors that perceive the world, software that plans a safe path through it, and the computer that powers and integrates them both with the vehicle. Weve designed it to enable any vehicle type, from passenger sedans to class-8 trucks, to move safely and efficiently through the world.
Aurora has a $10 billion valuation.
Uber ATG was valued at approximately $4 billion in this deal. This is less than the $7.25 billion value in April 2019 when Softbank, Denso and Toyota invested in Uber ATG.
Aurora has been funded by Hyundai, Amazon and major venture firms including Greylock and Sequoia.
Uber also solds its Air Taxi business to Joby Aviation.
Uber’s new CEO has been making various financial moves by not directly competing in certain countries and taking partial interest in competitors.
In 2016, Uber sold its China division to Didi. Uber got 20% of Didi. Didi invested $1 billion in Uber.
In Sept, 2020, Uber was trying to sell part of the Didi ownership for $6.3 billion.
Uber has a valuation of $93 billion as of today.
At the end of the third quarter in 2020, Uber was losing about $1 billion every quarter while making $3 billion in quarterly revenue. Uber had about $6 billion in cash. The $1 billion loss was an improvement from $2 billion in losses in 2020Q1.
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is targeting profitability in 2021.
SOURCES- Aurora, CNBC, Bloomberg, WSJWritten by Brian Wang, Nextbigfuture.com