Palantir a high-risk investment with ’a one-of-a-kind growth and margin model’
Investing.com -- Pony AI (NASDAQ:PONY) stock rose 15% after The New York Times (NYSE:NYT) reported that Uber (NYSE:UBER) is in preliminary talks with its former CEO Travis Kalanick to help fund his acquisition of the U.S. arm of the autonomous vehicle company.
According to the report, Kalanick would run Pony AI if the deal is completed, while maintaining his current role as CEO of CloudKitchens. The financial details of the potential transaction were not disclosed. Pony AI, which went public last year in the U.S., currently has a market capitalization of approximately $4.5 billion.
The discussions highlight Uber’s growing concern over competition from self-driving taxi services like Waymo, which was spun out of Google (NASDAQ:GOOGL), and Tesla (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s recently unveiled robot taxi service in Austin. These autonomous vehicle services could potentially reduce demand for rides from human drivers.
Pony AI, founded in Silicon Valley in 2016 but with its main presence in China, holds permits to operate robot taxis and trucks in both the United States and China. The company raised $260 million in its public offering last year.
An Uber spokesperson declined to comment specifically on the deal talks but noted that the company "has a platform strategy, and we intend to work with multiple players in the U.S. and around the world who can safely bring autonomous technology to the world."
If the deal materializes, it would mark a significant reunion between Uber and Kalanick, who was ousted from the company in 2017 following a boardroom coup.