As a e-commerce giant, Amazon has huge business demands for logistics automation. Recently, Amazon continues to invest in automatic driving startups. In June 2020, Amazon spent over $1 billion to acquire Zoox, an automatic driving startup aiming at making robotaxis. The acquisition enables Amazon to advance its warehouse automation strategic planning. In addition, Amazon has also invested in other automatic driving companies like Aurora and TuSimple. The continual investments demonstrate that automatic driving is of strategic importance for Amazon’s future business growth.
Amazon acquired robotaxi maker Zoox for over $1 billion
In June 2020, Amazon spent over $1 billion to fully acquire Zoox, an automatic driving startup founded in 2014 in Silicon Valley. Zoox aims to build autonomous vehicles from the ground up, including both hardware and software stacks. At the end of 2020, Zoox unveiled its first robotaxi prototype. Although the robotaxi doesn’t immediately satisfy Amazon’s business needs, the acquisition helps Amazon strengthen its capability in autonomous driving, which is key for Amazon to realize warehouse automation in the future.
Amazon invested in Aurora, an automatic driving full-stack solution provider
In February 2019, Amazon co-led Aurora’s $530 million Series B financing with Sequoia Capital. Aurora is an automatic driving startup offering full-stack solutions spanning across hardware and software. In November 2021, Aurora went public in NASDAQ via a SPAC deal. The deal valued Aurora at over $10 billion, making it a super unicorn in the automatic driving domain. However, after Aurora merged with Uber’s automatic driving department, Aurora pivoted to a platform company, serving various customers from ride-hailing, trucks to passenger cars. This makes Amazon’s investment in Aurora less aligned with its strategic goal in logistics automation.
Amazon partners with TuSimple in testing automatic driving trucks
In August 2021, Amazon announced its partnership with TuSimple in testing and using TuSimple’s self-driving trucks to transport cargo. TuSimple focuses exclusively on making self-driving trucks for autonomous long-haul transportation. With TuSimple, Amazon can satisfy its needs in automating long-distance logistics shipping. In the partnership, Amazon has the option to take stake in TuSimple before it goes public.
In summary, Amazon has continually invested in and partnered with multiple automatic driving startups, including Zoox, Aurora and TuSimple. These strategic moves demonstrate that automatic driving is crucial for Amazon’s future as it strives to realize warehouse automation and cut massive labor costs.