Luminar Technologies Inc (NASDAQ: LAZR) stock price rallied 53.4% during premarket trading after winning a deal with Nvidia to provide self-driving technologies for cars.
The company which develops lidar technology sealed the deal with Nvidia yesterday after the market close, which demonstrates the rapid growth of the autonomous driving market.
Luminar will provide lidar technology incorporated with Nvidia’s self-driving technologies, mainly developing computer chips to power the technology.
Lidar sensors are crucial to self-driving technologies because they allow the car to see far down any road and anticipate potential obstacles that could hinder its movement.
While lidar technology collects information about a car’s surroundings, Nvidia’s chips will help interpret the data collected and make decisions, including steering the car away from obstacles, changing lanes or reducing driving speed, among many other functions.
Gary Hicok, Nvidia’s senior vice president of engineering, said: “Our collaboration with Luminar bolsters the [Nvidia] ecosystem of companies that are focused on building best-in-class technologies for enabling autonomous driving functionalities,”
Adding:
“Luminar is pioneering a unique, scalable solution that complements the [Nvidia’s] platform.”
Winning a contract with Nvidia is a massive deal for the startup company, given that Nvidia is an established chip manufacturer with many options for partnerships.
Nvidia’s generated $576 million from sales to auto companies last year, representing a 16% drop compared to 2019, primarily due to the global chip shortage.
Austin Russell, Luminar’s CEO, said: “The best of the field from a lidar standpoint [and] the best of the field from a compute standpoint are joining forces to win the industry. This is the path to getting autonomous-enable hardware on the streets.”
Investors cheered the partnership, as evidenced by the rally in Luminar Technologies share price during premarket hours.
*This is not investment advice.
Luminar Technologies stock price.
Luminar Technologies stock price rallied 53.37% premarket to trade at $26.84, rising from Monday’s closing price of $17.50.
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