Nvidia Invests in Nuro, Boosting $203M Funding Round
Nvidia has joined the list of investors supporting Nuro, an autonomous vehicle startup focused on delivery and ride-hailing services, contributing to a new funding round totaling $203 million.
The announcement came as the Silicon Valley-based company revealed that several other investors, including Baillie Gifford, have also participated, adding $97 million to its Series E round. New investors, including Icehouse Ventures, Kindred Ventures, Nvidia, and Pledge Ventures, have shown confidence in Nuro’s vision.
Significantly, Nvidia’s investment continues its technical collaboration with Nuro. The startup is known for utilizing Nvidia's GPUs for processing vast amounts of data and has based its latest computational model on Nvidia's Drive AGX Thor platform. This collaboration highlights the growing synergy between tech giants and innovative startups in the autonomous vehicle sector.
The first part of Nuro’s Series E funding amounting to $106 million was announced earlier in the year, with contributions from prominent investors such as T. Rowe Price Associates and Fidelity Management, among others.
This funding event propels Nuro’s total capital raised to an impressive $2.3 billion. Despite a slight downturn in its valuation to $6 billion from a previous peak of $8.6 billion in 2021, the company remains poised for future growth.
Over recent years, Nuro, like many in the budding autonomous vehicle industry, had to reassess its business strategy. A tougher economic climate led to rounds of layoffs and strategic refocusing. Nuro shifted its focus from managing its own fleet to licensing technology to automotive and mobility-services companies.
The updated business model shows promise with partnerships, most notably with Uber, which plans to integrate Nuro’s technology into a robotaxi service using Lucid’s electric SUVs. This move included a substantial $300 million investment from Uber into Lucid, which includes future plans to acquire 20,000 EVs adapted with Nuro’s autonomous systems.
Dave Ferguson, Nuro's co-founder and president, expressed the company’s strengthened position to pursue new partnerships and scale their technology globally, leveraging the new capital injection to drive its next growth phase.
The autonomous vehicle landscape continues to shift, with Nuro's strategic adaptations exemplifying how startups can navigate industry challenges and remains competitive as the sector moves towards wider adoption.
