Chinese Robotaxi Company Going Public In US — I’m Shocked The Stock Symbol Is Free

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It’s time for another robotaxi company to get a lot more attention in the US — Pony AI.

Waymo is now providing 100,000 customer rides a week in its robotaxis. Tesla is trying to get robotaxis operational. Cruise is in an extended rehabilitation program. Zoox is … somewhere doing something. That’s mostly what we see here in the US regarding robotaxis. However, over in China, there are a few firms really moving forward with the robotaxi dream in their own ways. For example, a few months ago, I reported that Baidu Apollo aims to be the first profitable robotaxi company in the world next year. Since then, well, we haven’t reported on the company. Now, there’s another Chinese robotaxi company to cover, and I guarantee you we’ll be seeing a lot more headlines about it.

The company, as already noted, is Pony AI. Earlier today, it filed for an IPO (initial public offering) in the USA, on the Nasdaq stock exchange. Before we get into more important matters, though, I just have to note that I’m shocked its preferred stock symbol hasn’t already been taken. The stock symbol is “PONY.” No one else has snatched that up?!

Anyway. Pony AI already has a fleet of more than 250 robotaxis in operation. The company says that those robotaxis have driven more than 33.5 million kilometers (20.8 million miles), with 3.9 million of them (2.4 million miles) without a human in the car supervising the driving.

Pony AI isn’t profitable yet, but it’s headed in the right direction at least. In the first half of 2024, its revenue was $24.7 million, almost double what it was in the first half of 2023. The company’s net loss for that time period changed from $69.4 in the first half of 2023 to $51.3 million. See — progress. Perhaps it can strive for profitability by the end of next year as well. We’ll see. For now, it seems it needs more money, which it aims to collect via an IPO.

Toyota has 13.4% stake in Pony.AI. However, with an IPO, the startup could raise a lot more. Saudi Arabia’s NEOM has also invested in Pony.AI — putting $100 million into the company last year.

I assume Pony.AI can lean on Toyota and NEOM for more money in the future, but it’s now time to perform for the public. Sooner or later, the robotaxi firm has to show that it can make money with its robotaxis — make profits. In the meantime, the more risk averse may want to steer clear.

Once the company is on the stock market, though, I assume we’ll see a lot more headlines about it, as stock investors and traders will want to know what’s up with the robotaxi fleet — even when nothing much is going on. We’ll see if Pony.AI also finds a way to bring its autonomous vehicles to US shores for robotaxi operations. Getting onto the US stock market, one would think that is in their plans.