Lidar maker Innoviz signs $4 billion supply deal with Volkswagen

By Paul Lienert

– Innoviz Applied sciences will provide hardware and software program to Volkswagen AG’s Cariad unit in a deal valued at $4 billion, the Israeli firm stated on Tuesday.

The parts, together with laser-based lidar sensors, will probably be utilized in superior driver help programs and automatic autos from a number of manufacturers within the Volkswagen Group, beginning mid-decade, Innoviz stated.

Cariad confirmed the deal, however declined to supply monetary particulars.

The deal worth as estimated by Innoviz is greater than seven occasions the dimensions of the corporate’s market worth of simply over $500 million.

In an announcement, Innoviz Chief Govt and co-founder Omer Keilaf described the Cariad provide deal as “a major catalyst” for his firm, which was based in 2016 and went public by way of a reverse merger in April 2021.

Innoviz since then has seen its share value fall by two-thirds and its market worth sliced to $540 million from $1.6 billion when it went public.

Early company traders in Innoviz included auto suppliers Magna Worldwide, Aptiv and Samsung Electronics’ Harman Worldwide, based on investor web site PitchBook. SoftBank additionally was a key backer.

Magna in 2018 introduced a partnership with Innoviz to produce lidar to German automaker BMW.

Volkswagen in 2019 invested $2.6 billion in U.S. startup Argo AI, which can also be backed by Ford Motor Co. Volkswagen’s funding included the worth of the automaker’s European self-driving unit, management of which was transferred to Argo as a part of the deal.

Cariad, which was established in 2020 to coordinate software program improvement at Volkswagen, earlier this 12 months introduced technical partnerships with Bosch, Qualcomm and STMicroelectronics.

It isn't clear how or if Volkswagen plans to mesh facets of those numerous offers underneath its broader self-driving technique.

In early July, Cariad stated it deliberate to “streamline” efforts to step up the tempo of software program improvement after criticism from Volkswagen’s supervisory board.

In an announcement on Tuesday, Cariad stated Innoviz would provide lidar sensors for Cariad’s uniform scalable future structure, starting mid-decade. The structure will underpin a lot of autos bought by a number of Volkswagen manufacturers.