TuSimple has accomplished its pivot away from autonomous trucking to AI animation and gaming with a rebrand. The firm shall henceforth be generally known as CreateAI.
The rebrand comes as TuSimple is embroiled in controversy over the corporate’s plans to maneuver its remaining U.S. belongings to China to fund the brand new enterprise, which it initially introduced in August.
TuSimple shut down its U.S. self-driving truck operations and delisted from the inventory market in January 2024, three years after elevating $1.35 billion in its Initial Public Offering. The firm had initially deliberate to restart operations in China, however earlier this yr, TuSimple parted methods with most of its autonomous driving employees. Shortly after, it began hiring for roles associated to AI animation and gaming.
Shareholders have objected to the enterprise pivot and accused Mo Chen, TuSimple’s different co-founder, chief producer, and director, of self-dealing.
Chen owns or has ties to a number of different animation and gaming firms. And it seems Chen’s different companies are concerned in TuSimple/CreateAI’s new enterprise. In a current submitting, TuSimple mentioned that the board permitted a $25 million deal in November with two sport improvement firms which might be affiliated with Chen to develop and distribute “Heroes of Jin Yong,” a role-playing online game. To scale back potential conflicts of curiosity, in May 2024, Chen transferred his possession curiosity in these firms to a belief that he doesn’t management, although the beneficiaries of the belief are members of his household, per the submitting.
CreateAI doesn’t have an lively AV improvement program. But in September, TuSimple CEO Cheng Lu instructed TechCrunch the corporate nonetheless meant to license its self-driving expertise to companions in China. CreateAI’s marketing strategy, printed Wednesday, additionally references a plan to monetize current autonomous driving IP.
Some shareholders, notably co-founder and former CEO Xiaodi Hou, need to forestall the corporate from transferring its remaining money belongings, which had been $450 million in September, to China.
Hou earlier this week known as on shareholders to assist him overturn the board of administrators and change them with a board that will liquidate the corporate and return all current money to stockholders.
CreateAI’s plan for that capital is turning into extra clear. Alongside its rebrand, CreateAI has introduced the debut of its first main “image-to-video” AI mannequin named “Ruyi,” which is on the market as open supply on Hugging Face. The firm mentioned in a press release that it developed Ruyi in beneath six months partly by leveraging “technological know-how constructing upon the corporate’s autonomous driving experience.” CreateAI says its mannequin additionally lays the muse for proprietary AI instruments and infrastructure for online game and anime content material improvement.
“We are assured that our built-in method on the intersection of generative AI and digital leisure creation is a differentiating issue, one that gives important long-term development alternatives,” Lu mentioned in a press release.
CreateAI, which can also be working with Japanese anime designer Shōji Kawamori to convey “Father of Macross” to life by way of animated characteristic movie and online game, additionally unveiled its long-term enterprise technique for generative AI animation and gaming.
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