The self-driving trucking company TuSimple announced December 4 that it will be winding down operations in the U.S. as the organization looks for another business to buy off its remaining assets in the country. In a filing, the San Diego-based company said that it will now be moving its business to China.
According to The Wall Street Journal, TuSimple laid off 150 employees (75% of its U.S. staff) on December 4, bringing its total global workforce to just 700 full-time employees, half of what it was during the summer of 2022. The remaining employees will be tasked with winding down U.S. operations and selling off the company’s American assets.
Though TuSimple said it previously planned to sell its Chinese business unit, the company later changed its mind and announced an expansion throughout Asia. In June, TuSimple became the first company to operate a fully autonomous semi-truck on open Chinese public roads.
TuSimple did not respond to a request for comment from The Wall Street Journal.
The company said it stopped hauling freight in its trucks and shuttered most of its autonomous driving and testing operations. It also told its investors that it does not expect to make significant revenue this year.
Before the shutdown, the FBI, SEC and the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (Cfius) launched investigations into TuSimple to determine if the company improperly financed and provided technology to the Chinese trucking start-up Hydron. When Hydron was launched in 2021 by TuSimple co-founder Mo Chen, the organization said it would eventually build hydrogen-powered semi-trucks that were outfitted with TuSimple’s autonomous driving technology.
