TuSimple has completed its move from autonomous trucking to AI animation and gaming with a rebrand. The company will now be called CreateAI.
THE change brand comes like TuSimple is embroiled in controversy on the company's plans to move its remaining U.S. assets to China to finance the new business, initially announced in August.
TuSimple shuttered its U.S. autonomous truck operations and delisted from the stock market in January 2024, three years after raising $1.35 billion in its IPO. The company had initially planned to restart operations in China, but earlier this year TuSimple parted ways with most of its self-driving staff. Soon after, the company began recruiting for positions related to animation and AI games.
Shareholders opposed the business pivot and accused Mo Chen, TuSimple's other co-founder, chief producer and director, of self-dealing.
Chen owns or has ties to several other animation and gaming companies. And it appears that Chen's other companies are involved in TuSimple/CreateAI's new venture. In a recent depositTuSimple said the board approved a $25 million deal in November with two game development companies affiliated with Chen to develop and distribute “Heroes of Jin Yong,” a role-playing video game. To reduce potential conflicts of interest, in May 2024, Chen transferred his ownership interest in these companies to a trust that he does not control, although the beneficiaries of the trust are members of his family, according to the filing.
CreateAI does not have an active AV development program. But in September, TuSimple CEO Cheng Lu told TechCrunch that the company still intended to license its self-driving technology to partners in China. CreateAI's business plan, released Wednesday, also references a plan to monetize existing intellectual property on autonomous driving.
Some shareholders, including co-founder and former CEO Xiaodi Hou, want to prevent the company from moving its remaining cash, which stood at $450 million as of September, to China.
Hou earlier this week called on shareholders to help him overthrow the board and replace it with one that would liquidate the company and return all existing cash to shareholders.
CreateAI's plan for this capital is becoming clearer. Alongside its name change, CreateAI announced the launch of its first major “image-video” AI model named “Ruyi,” which is available as open source on Hugging Face. The company said in a statement that it developed Ruyi in less than six months, in part by leveraging “technology know-how building on the company's expertise in autonomous driving.” CreateAI says its model also lays the foundation for proprietary AI tools and infrastructure for video game and anime content development.
“We believe our integrated approach to the intersection of generative AI and digital entertainment creation is a differentiator, which provides significant long-term growth opportunities,” Lu said in a statement.
CreateAI, which is also working with Japanese anime designer Shōji Kawamori to bring the “Father of Macross” to life via an animated feature film and video game, also revealed its long term business strategy for AI generative animation and games.
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