Co-founder wants TuSimple liquidated – FreightWaves [Video]

TuSimple co-founder Xiaodi Hou has started a second autonomous trucking startup. But he is suing his former company, urging that TuSimple be liquidated and $450 million returned to shareholders, of whom he is the largest.

In separate filings in courts in San Diego and Delaware, Hou claims his co-founder, Mo Chen, and CEO Cheng Lu are trying to move TuSimple’s $450 million to China. TuSimple moved its business there and has shifted its business from autonomous trucking to AI-generated video game production.

“This pivot – from TuSimple’s autonomous driving mission to Artificial Intelligence Generated Content (AIGC) development in China – represents a fundamental change in business direction,” Hou wrote in a letter Monday to TuSimple’s board. “The Company implemented this transformation without any advance communication to or vote by shareholders.”

Hou makes no secret of his hard feelings toward …