Uber self-driving unit worth $7.25 billion USD, expected to go public soon

Uber said its investments in autonomous driving technology is now valued at $7.25 billion USD (about $9.67 billion CAD).

Reuters reported that the company raised nearly $1 billion USD ($1.33 billion CAD) from investors including SoftBank Group. It noted that this will likely appeal to financial analysts who have reported concerns of Uber spending a lot of money on its autonomous vehicles unit.

Uber did mention though in its initial public offering this month that the research and technology for autonomous vehicles are “expensive and time-consumer and may not be successful,” Reuters reported. In fact, the company lost $3.03 billion USD (about $4.04 billion CAD) last year.

Reuters also noted that it’s not very common that a company makes such investments so close to its IPO because “bringing in large new investors changes the company’s capital structure.”

The company is expected to have an early May debut on the New York Stock Exchange, Reuters noted. Reuters previously reported that Uber is expected to sell $10 billion USD (about $13.3 billion CAD) worth of stock; it would make for one of the biggest technology IPOs of all time.

Source: Reuters