Self-Driving Truck Firm Kodiak Robotics Plans to Go Public

Kodiak Robotics, an autonomous freight truck startup, is planning to become a public company.

The move comes through a merger between Kodiak and special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) Ares Acquisition Corporation II, and is expected to close in the second half of this year, according to a Monday (April 14) TechCrunch report.

The deal will value Kodiak at $2.5 billion pre-money, according to the report. Kodiak has raised $243 million so far, while new and existing Kodiak institutional investors, like Soros Fund Management, ARK Investments and Ares, have funded or committed over $110 million in financing to support the transaction, as well as about $551 million of cash held in trust.

According to the report, Kodiak in January delivered two self-driving trucks to oil-logistics company Atlas Energy Solutions, part of a 100-truck contract for trucks to haul fracking sand in West Texas.

This news comes on the heels of a similar update from autonomous vehicle company Nuro, which said on Wednesday (April 9) that it had raised $106 million so far in an ongoing Series E funding round, valuing the firm at $6 billion.

According to a Wednesday PYMNTS report, Nuro will use the funds to scale its technology platform and advance its commercial partnerships. Its latest funding round brings its total funding to $2.2 billion.

Nuro has a licensing-driven business model and offers its “vehicle-agnostic, cost-effective technology” to automotive manufacturers, suppliers and mobility companies that can integrate it into robotaxis, goods-delivery vehicles and personal vehicles, according to the PYMNTS report.

The advancements of Kodiak and Nuro come as President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs threaten the automotive industry.

The ongoing 25% tariffs on imported vehicles, which took effect on April 3, is likely to affect half the cars in the U.S. market. Car manufacturers are planning to deploy various strategies in response, such as BMW’s decision to absorb the costs, Stellantis’ plan to pause production of vehicles in Canada and Ford’s introduction of an employee discount initiative to make prices more palatable.

The tariffs may also hurt consumer spending.

Daniel Roeska, a Bernstein analyst, said in a CNBC report: “A 25% [tariff] on automotive imports lasting beyond four to six weeks would likely have a chilling effect on the entire sector as [automakers] need to grapple with significant impact to the bottom line.”