TuSimple (NASDAQ:TSP) shares inched higher Monday, on word the company may announce this week that it is cutting its staff in half,
according to people familiar with the matter who spoke to the Wall Street Journal. The self-driving truck startup had about 1,430 employees as of June.
The job cut would likely affect at least 700 employees, the report said citing people familiar with the matter.
The potential layoffs come after the self-driving truck startup removed its Chief Executive Officer Xiaodi Hou in October following an investigation by its board which revealed some employees spent paid hours last year working for Hydron Inc, a startup working on autonomous trucks mostly in China.
During November, TuSimple reinstated its former CEO Cheng Lu and removed four independent directors and appointed co-founder and major shareholder Mo Chen as executive chairman of the board.
The job cuts are expected to be announced Tuesday. The Journal reported that TuSimple will "significantly" scale back its efforts to build self-driving systems and test self-driving trucks on public roads in Arizona and Texas. "As part of the downsizing, much of TuSimple’s operation in Tucson, Ariz., where it does a lot of its test driving, will be eliminated, and the team that works on the algorithms for the self-driving software will be pared back significantly," the report said.
TSP shares acquired four cents, or 2.6%, to $1.58.
