Luminar receives a larger $33 million bid for its lidar business
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Luminar received an even higher bid for its lidar business as a court-run auction concluded on Monday, according to a new filing in the company’s bankruptcy case. MicroVision, a Redmond, Washington-based company that has been developing its own lidar sensors, submitted a $33 million bid, eclipsing the $22 million that Quantum Computing Inc. laid out a few weeks ago as the so-called “stalking horse” bidder. (Quantum Computing Inc. had upped its bid to $28 million but apparently was unwilling or unable to go higher.) In a statement, MicroVision said Tuesday that it is acquiring “IP and inventory related to the Iris and Halo lidar sensors, key engineering and operations talent, and certain commercial contracts and orders.” “It’s no secret that the lidar market has been ripe for disruption and in need of further consolidation,” MicroVision CEO Glen DeVos said. “Building on our proven executive leadership in automotive, our history of developing and delivering products in defense, and now an even more expansive portfolio of technologically diverse lidar sensors and advanced perception solutions, we believe MicroVision is ready to upend the industry, enabling widespread commercial adoption and significantly increased safety.” The sale of Luminar’s lidar business will now be subject to approval by the judge in the bankruptcy case. A hearing is slated for Tuesday afternoon. It’s not clear if Luminar founder and former CEO Austin Russell submitted a bid for his company’s lidar assets. Russell, through his new venture Russell AI Labs, tried to buy the company outright in October 2025 before it filed for bankruptcy, and he expressed an interest on making a bid during the bankruptcy process. Representatives for Russell did not respond to a request for comment. That said, Russell and Luminar spent the first month of the bankruptcy case fighting over a subpoena. The company has said it is still evaluating whether to take legal action against Russell, tied to his resignation last May, which followed a board-run ethics inquiry. While Russell already turned over his computers to Luminar, he had been holding onto his phone until he received a guarantee from the company that any personal information on the device would be protected. Luminar accused him of dodging the subpoena. Russell ultimately agreed to accept the subpoena last week. Over the weekend, he and Luminar made a joint filing in court laying out the terms of a protective order regarding his personal information. If the sale of the lidar assets goes through, it could bring about a fairly swift end to Luminar’s bankruptcy case, which was filed in December. The company has already reached an agreement to sell its other business division, centered around semiconductors, to Quantum Computing Inc. for $110 million. This story has been updated with a statement from MicroVision.
Topics Austin Russell, autonomous vehicles, Lidar, Luminar, Transportation Sean O'Kane Sr. Reporter, Transportation Sean O’Kane is a reporter who has spent a decade covering the rapidly-evolving business and technology of the transportation industry, including Tesla and the many startups chasing Elon Musk. Most recently, he was a reporter at Bloomberg News where he helped break stories about some of the most notorious EV SPAC flops. He previously worked at The Verge, where he also covered consumer technology, hosted many short- and long-form videos, performed product and editorial photography, and once nearly passed out in a Red Bull Air Race plane. You can contact or verify outreach from Sean by emailing sean.okane@techcrunch.com or via encrypted message at okane.01 on Signal.
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