Uber is planning to buy more than $10 million of stock in the initial public offering of Pony.ai, an autonomous driving startup with a Chinese background, and may consider using the latter’s technology in a partnership outside of the US, Bloomberg reported on Thursday. Pony.ai, headquartered in Fremont, California and the eastern Chinese city of Guangzhou, will issue 20 million American depository shares on Nasdaq in a price range of $11 to $13 per share, likely giving it a war chest of $260 million. By comparison, its rival WeRide raised $440.5 million from its US IPO last month, which Uber also participated in, people familiar with the matter said. Pony.ai, co-founded by two engineers from search engine Baidu, operates more than 250 passenger cars for autonomous ride-hailing services in several major Chinese cities including Beijing and Shenzhen. It raised $400 million in 2020 from Japan’s Toyota, which currently holds a 12.3% stake in the company, according to its prospectus. [TechNode reporting, Bloomberg]
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