TuSimple’s board of directors approved a new round lay-offs that will affect around 150 employees, or 19 per cent of its global workforce, as part of its restructuring initiative, the company said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Monday.
The remaining US employees will focus on “winding down the company’s US operations, including through sales of US assets, and assisting with the company’s strategic shift to the Asia-Pacific region”.
TuSimple’s exit from the US could mark the end of major autonomous truck development programmes in the country, following Alphabet unit Waymo’s decision in July to slow down work in that field under its Via subsidiary. In May, Embark Technology – an early proponent of self-driving truck software development in the US – delisted from the Nasdaq and went private via a merger after running out of capital to pursue commercial production.
TuSimple’s latest job cuts will leave it with around 700 full-time employees worldwide, according to the company’s filing. That number would be down from around 1,400 last December.
The company, once considered a star in the global autonomous driving sector and a leader in US self-driving truck development, has focused on level 4 autonomy – in which the vehicle can handle most driving situations independently, but a human can still request control of the cockpit.
The company, however, has grappled with a US government investigation, corporate disputes and lay-offs since 2022.
In May this year, TuSimple reorganised its US operations with a 30 per cent reduction of its global workforce amid a “further deterioration of global economic growth, significantly reduced capital availability in the self-driving industry and redundant hardware availability”.
The company last December embarked on a 25 per cent staff reduction, affecting around 350 employees out of its total workforce, as part of a restructuring that mostly covered its US business.
It has also struggled to turn a profit since going public in the US in 2021. During the September quarter, TuSimple recorded a net loss of US$61.4 million, compared to US$113.2 million in the same period last year.
TuSimple’s US-traded stock has lost 97 per cent since its initial public offering.
Lu Cheng, chief executive at TuSimple, said in April that the company had been “isolating” its China team from the US team, and wanted to resolve New York delisting risks after its previous auditor KPMG ended its partnership amid management turmoil at the autonomous trucking firm.
“Because of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) investigation last year, we had more separation and this will continue in future,” Lu told the South China Morning Post in April.
CFIUS, an inter-agency panel that reviews the national security implications of foreign investments in the US, kicked off an investigation of TuSimple with the FBI and SEC in 2022.