Workers prepare the TuSimple booth for CES 2022 at the Las Vegas Convention Center on January 3, 2022.
Alex Wong | Getty Images News | Getty Images
Chinese autonomous trucking company TuSimple announced Thursday that it is rebranding as CreateAI, with a focus on video games and animation.
The news comes as General Motors folded its robotaxi business this month and the once-bustling self-driving startup sector begins to weed out outliers. TuSimple, which straddles the U.S. and Chinese markets, has faced its own challenges: concerns about vehicle safety, a $189 million settlement of a securities fraud lawsuit, and a delisting from the Nasdaq in February.
Now, just over two years after CEO Cheng Lu returned to the company in this position following his ouster, he expects the company to be able to break even in 2026.
This is thanks to a video game based on Jin Yong's successful martial arts novels, which is scheduled to release a prequel that year, Cheng said. He expects revenues of “several hundred million” in 2027 when the full version is released.
Before the delisting, TuSimple said it lost $500,000 in the first three quarters of 2023, and spent $164.4 million on research and development during that period.
Cheng said the company's co-founder Mu Chen has a “long history” with Jin Yong's family and began work in 2021 to develop an animated film based on the stories.
The company claims that its AI capabilities in developing self-driving software give it a base from which to develop generative AI. This is the next-level technology that powers OpenAI's ChatGPT, which generates human-like responses to user prompts.
Along with the CreateAI rebrand, the company launched its first major AI model called Ruyi, an open source model for visual action, available via the Hugging Face platform.
“It is clear that our shareholders see the value of this transformation and want to move forward in this direction,” Cheng said. “Our management team and board have received overwhelming support from shareholders.” The company said it is scheduled to hold its annual shareholders meeting on Friday.
The company plans to increase headcount to about 500 next year, up from 300, he said.
Reduce production costs by 70%
While still under the name TuSimple, the company in August announced a partnership with Shanghai Three Body Animation to develop the first animated film and video game based on the science fiction novel series “The Three-Body Issue”.
The company said at the time that it would launch a new business segment to develop generative AI applications for video games and animation.
CreateAI expects to reduce the cost of producing top-tier games by 70% in the next five to six years, Cheng said. He declined to reveal whether the company was in talks with the gaming giant Tencent.
When asked about the impact of the US restrictions, Cheng claimed there were no issues and said the company used a mix of Chinese and non-Chinese cloud computing providers.
Under the Biden administration, the United States has intensified restrictions on Chinese companies' access to advanced semiconductors used to power generative artificial intelligence.
Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that CreateAI, formerly known as TuSimple, is scheduled to hold its annual shareholders meeting on Friday.
