Autonomous vehicle startup Pony.ai raised an additional $100M to close out its Series C funding round at $367M. It raised an initial $267M in November and now has a $5.3B valuation, up from $3B in February 2020. Pony.ai's list of investors includes Toyota, Sequoia Capital, and Fidelity. 

What is Pony.ai:

• Pony.ai builds level 4 autonomous vehicles, which are cars that can operate without human intervention. It has raised $1.1B since its inception in 2016.
• It is the only self-driving car company to receive permission to operate its robo-taxis in California and China.

Pony.ai's developments:

• In October, Pony.ai partnered with Via and Hyundai to launch its second public robo-taxi service in China called BotRide. It was previously operating a pilot program in Nansha, China.
• BotRide enables a user to summon a self-driving vehicle — which contains a human safety driver — using their phone.
• In December, Pony.ai received permission to test its autonomous trucks on public roads in Guangzhou, China. It claims its truck can merge lanes, recognize traffic lights, and overtake other vehicles.

DoorDash acquired Chowbotics, a robotics startup best known for its salad-making robot Sally, for an undisclosed fee. DoorDash says Chowbotics' tech will help improve its logistics platform, merchant offerings, and customer access to meals. 

More:

• Chowbotics has raised $21M since its inception in 2014. It was most recently valued at $46M in 2018 after it raised $11M. It says it has deployed more than 100 robots.
• In 2017, Doordash began testing food delivery robots made by Starship Technologies; the self-driving bots have been piloted in cities such as Redwood City, Calif., and Washington, D.C.
• DoorDash, which went public in December, is the dominant player in the U.S. food delivery market, controlling a 48% share.
• DoorDash's stock is up 24% so far this year.
• The Verge notes that Chowbotics' employees now work under DoorDash, though the company "will operate independently within DoorDash."

A version of this story first appeared in Inside AI. You can read the full issue here.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos will shift his focus to space exploration company Blue Origin, according to Reuters, who cited industry sources. Last week, Bezos announced he would step down as CEO in Q3 and assume the role of Executive Chairman.

More:

• Blue Origin trails SpaceX in the orbital transportation sector. SpaceX has become NASA's "go-to-ride into orbit."
• Recently, the company lost out to SpaceX and United Launch Alliance (ULA) on U.S. national security launch contracts worth billions of dollars. ULA is a joint venture between Boeing and Lockheed Martin.
• Blue Origin is currently competing with SpaceX and Dynetics to develop a lunar lander for NASA which aims to take humans to the moon.
• Bezos reportedly believes winning and executing the contract would help Blue Origin become NASA's main partner and ensure the company's profitability.
• Blue Origin is currently unprofitable, and for the past few years, Bezos has been liquidating $1B of Amazon stock annually to fund its operations. He has called it "the most important work that I’m doing."

Hyundai's shares fell by 8% and its affiliate Kia Motor's shares fell by 14% on Monday as they disclosed that they're not in talks with Apple to develop its autonomous vehicle. Last week, WSJ reported that Kia was in talks with partners to manufacture Apple cars in its Georgia plant, following a similar announcement by Hyundai on Jan. 7.

More:

• Hyundai said that it is getting requests from multiple companies to develop AVs/EVs, but added that those are yet to materialize. The company clarified it is "not in talks with Apple over developing an autonomous vehicle." 
• Bloomberg noted on Wednesday that Apple was reportedly planning to invest $3.6B in Kia and was hoping to make 100,000 cars in 2024.
• Apple is reportedly in talks with about six automakers for vehicle production. In 2018, Apple hired Doug Field, Tesla's former senior VP of engineering, to oversee its self-driving technology unit.
• An analyst noted that the cancellation of talks with Apple wouldn't affect Hyundai's plans as the company already had plans for EVs through its Ioniq brand. The company launched an EV platform last year to produce 23 electric models by 2025.
• In January, Hyundai backtracked after announcing that it was in talks with Apple to produce EVs. The company issued a revised statement, removing references to Apple within 30 minutes of the original statement release. 
• Hyundai's share price increased by 30% and Kia's share price increased by more than 50% following the initial news announcement in January. 

A version of this story first appeared in Inside Business. You can read the full issue here.

SpaceX began accepting $99 pre-orders for its Starlink internet service on Monday. The move comes as SpaceX looks to expand Starlink, which it began beta testing last October. 

More:

• Starlink is currently available in the U.S., the U.K., and Canada. Last week, SpaceX revealed Starlink has more than 10,000 users so far.
• SpaceX aims to build an interconnected satellite network surrounding the Earth to deliver high-speed internet anywhere on the planet.
• In 2019, the Federal Communications Commission gave SpaceX permission to launch 11,943 satellites. It has already deployed more than 1,000 satellites and aims to have 4,425 in orbit by 2024.
• CEO Elon Musk believes Starlink can generate $30B in annual revenue for SpaceX.
• On Tuesday, he reiterated his belief that Starlink will go public when its cash flow becomes easier to project.

Lockheed Martin has chosen ABL Space's RS1 rocket for a launch scheduled for next year. The U.K. Space Agency’s “Pathfinder Launch” program is funding the mission via a grant. Lockheed Martin will launch the rocket from the island of Unst in Shetland.

Background about ABL Space:

• ABL Space is a California based company that builds small rockets. Its RS1 rocket is 88 feet tall and can carry nearly 1.5 tons of cargo to low-earth orbit for $12M per launch.
• It has raised $49M since its inception in 2017, including funds from Lockheed Martin. It plans to launch its first rocket in the first six months of this year.

Lockheed Martin's Mission:

• The RS1 launch will carry a spacecraft and aims to deploy six small satellites.
• It aims to become the first vertical small satellite launch from the U.K. and Europe.

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