TuSimple completes its transformation from self-driving trucking to AI animation and gaming with a rebrand. The company will now be known as CreateAI.
The rebranding comes as TuSimple is embroiled in controversy over the company's plans to move its remaining U.S. assets to China to finance new business ventures, which it first announced in August.
TuSimple closed its U.S. self-driving truck business and was delisted from the stock market in January 2024, three years after raising $1.35 billion in an IPO. The company initially planned to restart operations in China, but parted ways with most of its self-driving staff earlier this year. Shortly after, we started hiring for positions related to AI animation and gaming.
Shareholders opposed the pivot and accused TuSimple's other co-founder, chief producer and director Mo Chen, of self-dealing.
Mr. Chen owns or has relationships with several other animation and game companies. And it appears that Chen's other businesses are also involved in the new TuSimple/CreateAI venture. In a recent filing, TuSimple announced a $25 million deal with two game development companies affiliated with Mr. Chen to develop and distribute the role-playing video game “Heroes of Jin Yong.” The council said it was approved in November. To reduce potential conflicts of interest, Mr. Chen transferred ownership of these companies in May 2024 to a trust that he does not control, but the beneficiaries of the trust are family members, according to the filing. There is.
CreateAI does not have an active AV development program. But in September, TuSimple CEO Cheng Lu told TechCrunch that the company still intends to license its self-driving technology to Chinese partners. CreateAI's business plan, announced Wednesday, also mentions plans to monetize existing self-driving IP.
Some shareholders, particularly co-founder and former CEO Xiaodi Hou, want to prevent the company from moving its remaining cash assets, which amounted to $450 million as of September, to China.
Hou earlier this week called on shareholders to help overturn the board and replace it with one that would liquidate the company and return all existing cash to shareholders.
CreateAI's plans for that capital are becoming clearer. In conjunction with the rebrand, CreateAI announced the debut of its first major “image-to-video” AI model named “Ruyi.” This model is available as open source at Hugging Face. The company said in a statement that it developed Ruyi within six months, leveraging “technical know-how based on the company's autonomous driving expertise.” CreateAI says its model also lays the foundation for its own AI tools and infrastructure for video game and anime content development.
“We believe our integrated approach at the intersection of generative AI and digital entertainment creation is a differentiator and provides significant long-term growth opportunities,” Lu said in a statement.
CreateAI, which is working with Japanese anime designer Masaharu Kawamori to bring The Father of Macross to life through animated feature films and video games, also announced its long-term business strategy for generative AI animation and games. .
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