Autonomous vehicle company Aurora Innovation Inc. is shifting into its final gear as part of its pursuit of becoming a publicly traded company, which is now expected as early as November if shareholders approve of the measure. The Pittsburgh-based company is planning to go public via a merger with Reinvent Technology Partners Y (RTPY), a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) led by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and Zynga founder Mark Pincus.
RTPY, which is currently a publicly traded company, will hold an "Extraordinary General Meeting of Shareholders" on Nov. 2 to vote on approval of its business combination with Aurora. That vote, if approved, is expected to close on Nov. 3 which will then have RTPY change its name to Aurora Innovation Inc. Common stock and warrants of the combined company are then expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Nov. 4 under the ticker symbols of "AUR" and "AUROW," respectively.
Those who are RTPY shareholders before the closing of the merger will have their shares automatically converted to common stock of Aurora on a 1:1 basis following approval of the merger and Aurora's public debut.
RTPY began trading in May 2021 and has ranged from $9.75 to $10.17 per share. Its current valuation sits at $1.216 billion with shares trading at $9.96 each as of market open Tuesday.
Three autonomous vehicle industry executives from different organizations partnered together and co-founded Aurora in 2016. Its current CEO, Chris Urmson, previously served as the chief technology officer of Google Inc.'s self-driving team, which now goes by Waymo; Aurora's Chief Product Officer, Sterling Anderson, served as the former head of electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc.'s self-driving unit; and Aurora's Chief Technology Officer, Drew Bagnell, served as the former head of Uber Technologies Inc.'s autonomy and perception team.
In 2018, Aurora became the first self-driving vehicle company to be authorized for testing in Pennsylvania, a voluntary process at the time. Later, Aurora went on to acquire Uber's self-driving unit, Advanced Technologies Group, in January 2021, which resulted in Uber taking a 26% ownership stake in Aurora following Uber's $400 million investment into the company. More recently, Aurora officially declared the City of Pittsburgh to be its sole headquarters on Sept. 9, dropping its dual headquarters status that it shared with the Steel City and Mountain View, California.
Aurora employs the majority of its 1,600-person workforce out of Pittsburgh where it maintains operations along Smallman Street in the Strip District as well as in the Crucible Building a few blocks down the road. The company also has offices in Robotics Row in Lawrenceville and owns a test track in Hazelwood, which it acquired from its merger with Uber.
