Aug 12, 2021 16:16:00

Self-driving car company Pony.ai withholds US listing plan due to tightening regulations in China

Is an automatic operation start-up of China '

Pony.ai (pony AI) ' is, Reuters that it has put on hold the IPO plan in the United States were reported. With respect to the 'China listing on the American market of the company', after the listing by the dispatch service · DiDi of 2021 July, the Chinese government announced a strengthening regulation has been, will be the shape of the affected.

EXCLUSIVE China's tech crackdown thwarts Pony.ai's US listing plans -sources | Reuters
https://www.reuters.com/technology/exclusive-chinas-tech-crackdown-thwarts-ponyais-us-listing-plans-sources-2021-08-11/

Pony.ai is an autonomous driving startup founded in 2016 by Google and Baidu engineers James Penn and Lou Tienchen. Toyota and other companies have also invested in the robot taxi business in parts of China and California with a driver to ensure safety.

Pony.ai was aiming to be listed on the US stock market in order to obtain funds to continue the autonomous driving business, but in July 2021, when the Chinese ride-hailing service DiDi went public in the US, Chinese regulators pointed out privacy issues and ordered DiDi to be removed from the app store.

What happened when the ride-hailing service DiDi was blocked by the Chinese authorities immediately after its listing in the United States and the stock price plummeted? --GIGAZINE

In response to this incident, 'to prepare for data security risks and protect national security and public interest,' the Chinese government said when a technology company with more than 1 million user data was listed overseas. We have established a new rule that requires government-led security reviews.

China announces new rules for 'Chinese companies aiming to be listed overseas' --GIGAZINE

Pony.ai is special acquisition purpose company has had the aim of listing of up to 2021 October due to the merger with · VectoIQ Acquisition II, subject to the crackdown does not conflict with the new rules listing plan of its own is decided on by the government We decided to suspend the listing plan because we could not get confirmation that it would not be.

A spokeswoman for Pony.ai said, 'There are currently no plans or plans to go public,' Reuters said. In addition, no comments were received from the merger partner VectoIQ and Chinese regulators.

If the listing plan went smoothly, the valuation would have been $ 12 billion (about 1.32 trillion yen), and Pony.ai said, 'The biggest company that has stopped listing in the United States due to regulations. It will be one of the companies.