Luminar Stock Surges as Nvidia Touts Lidar Tech

Luminar’s stock is seeing another day of significant gains, with a 12.3% increase in share price as of 12:15 p.m. ET, despite the overall market being down. The lidar specialist’s stock had earlier reached as high as 22.6% gain.

Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s Keynote Address at CES

The surge in Luminar’s stock can be attributed to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang’s keynote address at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last night. Huang outlined new initiatives in the autonomous vehicle space and confirmed that his company will continue to use lidar technologies.

Luminar Stock Skyrockets as Investors Bet on Nvidia Mention

Luminar’s stock skyrocketed yesterday, with investors betting that Huang would mention the lidar specialist or the technology during his CES keynote address. Although Luminar didn’t receive a direct shoutout, Nvidia’s leader indicated that lidar would be a crucial part of their strategy in the autonomous vehicle space.

Nvidia Partners with Aurora Innovation

In another significant development, Nvidia announced its partnership with Aurora Innovation, which will use high-end lidar with radar and cameras to advance driverless trucks. Aurora Innovation’s share price surged by 36.9% as of this writing.

What Comes Next for Luminar?

The previous partnership between Luminar and Nvidia was announced in 2021, where Nvidia selected Luminar’s lidar tech as a key component of their autonomous vehicle platform. While there hasn’t been much news on the partnership since then, Luminar did announce that Mercedes-Benz started using its lidar-based automatic emergency steering running on Nvidia’s DRIVE Orin processors at the beginning of 2024.

Speculation and Uncertainty

The recently announced partnership between Nvidia and Aurora Innovation makes it clear that the AI leader plans to make lidar technologies a key part of their autonomous driving platform. However, it is unclear whether Luminar will score new wins with the tech giant. The previously established relationship between the two companies suggests continued collaboration is possible, but investors should be aware that the stock gains today are based on speculation.

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