Austin Russell, the billionaire founder and former CEO of lidar company Luminar, has made a bid to reacquire the company following his previous departure due to an ethics inquiry. This move, initially perceived as hostile, is reportedly supported by some members of Luminar\u2019s board who have encouraged Russell to return. The potential acquisition may involve Russell\u2019s new venture, Russell AI Labs, acquiring another automotive tech company to merge with Luminar. Meanwhile, in the electric aviation sector, Beta Technologies is pushing forward with an IPO potentially valuing the company at $7.2 billion, and Archer Aviation has acquired 300 patents from the defunct startup Lilium for \u20ac18 million. Additionally, Indian drone startup Airbound and London-based warehouse robotics company Dexory have secured significant funding rounds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Austin Russell, the billionaire founder and former CEO of lidar company Luminar, has made a bid to reacquire the company following his previous departure due to an ethics inquiry. This…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1434],"tags":[9506,14438,419,9706,14574],"class_list":["post-11730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-global","tag-austin-russell","tag-electric-aviation","tag-global-founder-news","tag-luminar","tag-russell-ai-labs"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n