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Self-driving truck company TuSimple starts a new round of layoffs in the US

May 20, 2023 3:23 am

TuSimple, the self-driving truck company with dual headquarters in China and the US, is going to start a new round of layoffs, affecting about 30% of its global workforce.

All layoffs will be made at the company's US office. According to the company, following the cut, the US workforce will go down from 550 to 220 employees.

This marks the second restructuring within a span of five months, as the company had previously laid off 25% of its workforce in December.

Once regarded as a promising player in the autonomous driving sector, TuSimple is now facing significant challenges due to management turbulence and its struggles to generate revenue.

Adding to its woes, Nasdaq recently notified the trouble-ridden startup that it would be delisted due to its failure to submit quarterly reports on time. Although the stock exchange had initially intended to suspend trading of TuSimple shares on May 15, the company has requested an extension of the suspension and is currently undergoing an appeals process.

Furthermore, under pressure from Washington over concerns regarding data security, TuSimple restricted its Chinese unit from accessing its data in the US last March and had been exploring the sale of its Chinese operations for $1 billion. Geely, one of China's leading automakers and the owner of Volvo, had shown interest in acquiring TuSimple's Chinese unit.

However, in a recent statement, TuSimple revealed that it plans to keep its Chinese-based subsidiaries and is no longer pursuing a sale. The company emphasized that these subsidiaries have been making progress by collaborating with several OEMs on Level 4 and Level 2+ commercial projects.

TuSimple went public in April 2021 and experienced a peak share price of $62.58 in July of the same year. However, since then, its stock value has plummeted by 98%.