PlusAI is targeting the end of 2026 to complete its merger with Texas Ventures Acquisition III Corp., a transaction that would value the autonomous trucking developer at an $800 million pre-money equity valuation.
Co-founder and CEO David Liu told FreightWaves that the transaction, announced Sept. 3, could provide PlusAI with as much as $300 million in capital. The financing package combines more than $60 million in committed funding with approximately $236 million held in the SPAC trust.
Funds managed by Yorkville Advisors, the financial backer of the SPAC, account for a significant portion of the commitment, alongside investments from both new and existing shareholders.
The final amount PlusAI receives from the SPAC trust will depend on the level of shareholder redemptions at closing, Liu said. However, the committed financing by itself meets the minimum cash requirement included in the transaction agreement filed by the companies with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
According to PlusAI, the funds are also expected to provide sufficient financing to support the company through 2027.
“In terms of certainty of this transaction, it has very, very high certainty of closing in the coming months,” Liu said.
The transaction comes after PlusAI ended its planned merger with Churchill Capital Corp IX in April, a decision the company attributed to market conditions.
Following the new transaction, the combined company will continue operating under the PlusAI name and is expected to list on Nasdaq. Liu said the public listing would give the company access to a significantly broader pool of investors.
HyperFoundry drives revenue growth
PlusAI’s HyperFoundry development platform has already generated $25 million in revenue this year, according to the transaction filing. The company is targeting between $40 million and $50 million in contracted revenue for 2026, with revenue expected to increase significantly during the second half of the year, Liu said.
Liu said the targeted $40 million to $50 million would represent nearly three times the revenue Aurora is expected to recognize this year. Aurora reaffirmed full-year 2026 revenue guidance of $14 million to $16 million in July.
There is an important distinction between the two figures: Aurora’s figure refers to recognized revenue, while PlusAI’s filing describes its own target as contracted revenue.
HyperFoundry consists of three main components, Liu explained: a data factory, a model factory and SimVerse, a simulation and verification environment.
The company originally developed these capabilities to build its own virtual driver. It is now also making the platform available to traditional engineering original equipment manufacturers in adjacent industries.
“These traditional large engineering OEMs, they are all looking at, how do I make intelligence into my machine? And if PlusAI can do this for trucking, this could be the same thing for us,” Liu said.
PlusAI is currently working selectively with several large HyperFoundry customers and expects to announce further developments around the business line soon.
Despite the growing opportunity around HyperFoundry, autonomous trucking remains PlusAI’s primary focus. Liu said the company has made commercial commitments to customers and partners to bring its autonomous trucking technology to market.
TRATON provides an OEM route to scale
PlusAI is already conducting daily commercial pilot operations in Texas with International and Ryder. The company expects to add more fleet customers to the program over the coming months.
The focus is now shifting from proving that the technology works to determining how it can be deployed at commercial scale.
“But now we’re beyond just technology viability. That’s been proven already by us, along with some other companies as well. And now the real question is how do you actually commercially scale the technology to a much broader set of customers,” Liu said.
For PlusAI, the answer lies largely in OEM distribution.
TRATON Group whose brands include Scania, MAN, International and Volkswagen Truck & Bus selected PlusAI to integrate autonomous driving technology into its trucks. The two companies have been working together for several years, according to Liu.
Ryder is also among TRATON’s fleet customers, he said, while Hyundai and IVECO are identified as PlusAI partners in the transaction filing.
Under the planned commercial model, PlusAI’s SuperDrive Level 4 autonomous driving system will be deployed through the existing manufacturing, sales and service networks of its OEM partners.
The company intends to generate recurring revenue from the technology through a Driver-as-a-Service model.
The objective is to move from pilot operations to commercial driverless trucking and begin scaling deployments in 2027.
“We are looking at launching driverless trucks commercially and starting to scale that in 2027,” Liu said. “We’re on track to do that.”
