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Xiaodi Hu, co-founder and former CEO of self-driving trucking startup TuSimple, urged a California district court to issue a temporary restraining order to prevent the company from moving its remaining U.S. assets to China, according to a recent court filing.
He, who plans to file for a temporary restraining order in December during his next scheduled court hearing, hopes to prevent TuSimple from moving tens of millions of dollars in cash to China. As of September, TuSimple had about $450 million in capital. He also requests expedited discovery of evidence to assist his requests in this motion.
Hu’s court filing, filed Monday, is the latest escalation in the battle between TuSimple and some of its shareholders, over the company’s attempts to use investor capital to fund new AI-generated animation and video game businesses in China.
This is the first time that Ho – who was ousted as CEO in 2022 – has publicly accused TuSimple and its leaders of steering assets toward animation and gaming companies owned by Mu Chen, TuSimple’s co-founder and chairman, or with whom he has direct ties. Board of Directors, under the guise of the business hub. He also argued that the company violated SEC regulations by failing to inform shareholders or obtain approval before changing the direction of its business or transferring funds to China.
He now heads a new self-driving trucking startup in Texas
TuSimple, which was valued at $8.5 billion after its 2021 IPO, faced setbacks that led to its U.S. closure and delisting in January 2024. The company’s stated goal was to commercialize its autonomous vehicle technology in China. But as the year went on, TuSimple reduced its workforce, halted self-driving operations, and began hiring employees to handle jobs related to AI games and animation.
Shareholders sent a letter to the board in August after learning that TuSimple was allocating resources to AI games and animation. The board responded a few weeks later by publicly announcing the new business unit.
This week, Hu urged the court to issue a temporary restraining order after noting a filing from TuSimple China indicating the company was about to transfer money (or had already done so) outside the United States. TuSimple China’s two subsidiaries last week reported a combined asset increase of $150 million, according to Huo’s announcement and information from public filings.
“These filings show a suspicious increase in assets recorded between these two subsidiaries in a single day as a precursor to a large amount of cash transfers from the United States to China,” the announcement said. “The most likely scenario is that these registrations in China were preparatory steps before TuSimple US transferred funds to those subsidiaries in China.”
Hu added that such large cash transfers “beyond the normal course of business” and are comparable to “TuSimple China’s heyday when it was operating a large fleet of self-driving trucks in Shanghai” and had about 700 employees on its payroll. As of September, TuSimple China had about 200 employees.
The opportunity for shareholders like Hu to get what they want — that is, for TuSimple to liquidate so they can recover some of their losses — is diminishing.
TuSimple falls into a gray area when it comes to enforcement by the SEC. While TuSimple was delisted earlier this year, the company is still registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission and therefore subject to US scrutiny. Once the money goes to China, US shareholders will have no recourse to recover funds from their original investments.
TechCrunch reached out to the SEC to find out if the agency is investigating TuSimple in connection with shareholder complaints.
TuSimple did not immediately respond to TechCrunch’s request for comment.
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