8 AI Funding Weekly Highlights | 11.25-12.1
Explore this week's AI funding highlights (11.25-12.1), including Pony.ai's $452M IPO, Anthropic's $4B investment, and cutting-edge advancements.
This week, the AI sector saw eight funding projects.
The financing scale of these projects ranged from millions to billions of US dollars.
Pony.ai｜IPO Round｜$452 Million
On November 27, 2024, Pony.ai successfully listed on the NASDAQ in the US under the stock ticker "PONY," becoming the first publicly traded Robotaxi company.
After expanding the issuance size, if the underwriters exercise their overallotment option in full, Pony.ai will issue a total of 23 million American Depository Shares (ADS) at the upper end of the price range of $13 per share, raising up to $299 million. This marks the largest IPO in the autonomous driving sector on the US stock market this year.
Additionally, Pony.ai raised approximately $153.4 million through simultaneous private placements of common shares, bringing the total IPO fundraising amount to approximately $452 million.
Before the IPO, Pony.ai had raised over $1.2 billion (approximately RMB 8.6 billion) in total, with a valuation exceeding $8.5 billion.
Founded in late 2016 by James Peng and Tiancheng Lou in Silicon Valley, Pony.ai is a company focused on providing end-to-end autonomous driving technology.
The company aims to create "virtual drivers" suitable for various vehicle models and scenarios and has expanded into three major business areas: autonomous ride-hailing services (Robotaxi), autonomous trucking (Robotruck), and intelligent driving for passenger vehicles (POV).
Pony.ai has established R&D centers in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen and has obtained autonomous driving testing and operational permits in various locations worldwide.
The company has secured permits for unmanned ride-hailing services in all four of China's major first-tier cities. It has commenced fully unmanned Robotaxi commercial services in Beijing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen.
To date, Pony.ai's Robotaxi has accumulated over 33.5 million kilometers of autonomous driving road testing, including nearly 4 million kilometers of unmanned testing.
Pony.ai's vision is to revolutionize transportation with its cutting-edge autonomous driving technology, providing safe, advanced, and reliable autonomous driving services to society.