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more than eight months after the delisting of the "former world's first autonomous driving stock," tusimple has again been embroiled in rumors of palace fighting.

an 11-page shareholder document, "letter from shareholders to the board of directors of tusimple," disclosed the "five sins" of tusimple's management, including deviation from its core business, profiteering, related-party transactions, fraud and concealment, and sharp cost increases., which attracted industry attention.

on september 18, tusimple’s management team, including founder and chairman chen mo, ceo lu cheng, and china ceo hao jianan, made a collective appearance, responded to the allegations mentioned in the document one by one, and made a public statement on the company’s past, present, and future.

at the communication meeting, chen mo said that (co-founder hou xiaodi) may think that driverless driving is the only way, but we (the current management) think that the company's cash flow is the only way out.

it is worth noting that in order to ensure "cash flow", tusimple announced its transformation to aigc in august 2024, and at the same time announced the ip authorization and cooperation related to "the three-body problem".

management responds to the “five sins”

in 2015, chen mo, hao jianan and cto hou xiaodi co-founded an autonomous driving company. by 2021, it was listed on the nasdaq with a market value of more than 15 billion us dollars. then it was delisted and now it is exploring aigc business. tusimple, which was once star-studded, is now in tatters.

tusimple has been in turmoil since march 2022. ceo lu cheng and founder chen mo were successively eliminated. after hou xiaodi, who had monopolized power, was dismissed by the board of directors, ceo lu cheng and founder chen mo returned. however, the tusimple that the two returned to take over was already a mess with business interruptions, environmental changes, and frequent audits. in response, the two had to initiate layoffs, cost reductions, and reductions in us business.

it was not until tusimple announced its transformation into aigc and reached a cooperation with the three-body problem that tusimple seemed to let the outside world see the "future" again. looking to the future, three executives collectively appeared to answer questions one by one.

the letter from shareholders to the board of directors of tusimple pointed out that the new company registered by chen mo and hao jianan is mainly engaged in video production and animation, which does not match tusimple's autonomous driving business. in addition, the new company may be related to the film, television and animation-related companies controlled by chen mo personally.

regarding the issue of deviating from the main business of autonomous driving, tusimple executives said that there is no plan to withdraw from the transportation industry, and technical cooperation and licensing can continue to promote the commercialization of autonomous driving technology.chen mo said on the spot that he had contacted two car company clients and the patent licensing fee might be tens of millions of us dollars.

as for whether it is related to the animation and film and television companies controlled by chen mo personally, tusimple said that the background of the two newly established companies, dreamworks culture co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "beijing xiongxiong"), is tusimple's new business direction for generative ai., a domestic company with a vie structure established in accordance with chinese law. another company, guangzhou xiongxiong animation culture co., ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "guangzhou xiongxiong"), is a wholly-owned subsidiary of tusimple. the establishment of the two companies is in line with the interests of shareholders and the company's articles of association, and there is no fraud or profit transfer.

the "letter from shareholders to the board of directors of tusimple" also mentioned that the directors, supervisors and senior management positions of beijing xiongxiongguo culture media co., ltd., beijing shuimo xiadao culture communication co., ltd., guangzhou xiongxiongguo xiadao interactive entertainment co., ltd. and xiadao (shanghai) culture communication co., ltd., which are associated with chen mo, are all related personnel of tusimple, and their registration information, contact information, mailing address, etc. have obvious overlap with tusimple.

in response, tusimple's management said that beijing xiongxiongguo culture communication co., ltd. was established by chen mo in 2020, but later it had no actual operations and no business. the shuimoxiadao series of companies are chen mo's personal interests and hobbies. after their establishment, they have maintained independent operations with tusimple and have not used any resources of tusimple. all operating funds come from chen mo personally.

as for the "shareholder letter to tusimple's board of directors", it mentioned that ceo lu cheng has been trying to deceive the board of directors, the public and the u.s. federal court, claiming that tusimple's autonomous driving commercialization is in full swing and urgently needs a lot of funds.in response, tusimple's management said that the management and ceo did not deceive the board of directors, the public, or the u.s. federal court., there was no intentional transfer of funds to china.

in addition, the "shareholder letter to tusimple's board of directors" also mentioned that after the company suspended its autonomous driving business, aws costs did not decrease but instead rose to the level of several million us dollars. in response, tusimple's management said that the aws contract was an annual contract signed by former ceo hou xiaodi during his tenure, and there was a minimum consumption requirement in the contract. lu cheng said at the scene, "this anonymous letter makes normal things look weird. i think it is a malicious act that specifically damages tusimple's reputation."

"no matter what i say about tucson in the current situation, it will be meaningless," chen mo said at the scene. "the only thing i want now is to make the company profitable. i will be willing to talk about other topics only when the market value reaches the level required for listing."

"x factor" hou xiaodi

hou xiaodi likes to invite senior executives to his home for meetings, and he doesn't like to hear opposing opinions.

hou xiaodi became famous at a young age. he obtained a doctorate in computer and neural systems from caltech and is the most cited author among chinese doctoral students in the field of computer vision. when tusimple was first established, hou xiaodi, lu cheng and chen mo had clear division of labor. chen mo was responsible for the operation of the domestic company, ceo lu cheng was responsible for the us company, and hou xiaodi served as cto and director.

across the ocean, hou xiaodi and lu cheng had serious disagreements over the direction of business, and hou xiaodi proposed a choice between the two. chen mo chose hou xiaodi. at the time, chen mo gave the reason that "hou xiaodi is a business partner who has walked with him for many years and is the core figure of this technology company."

relying on chen mo's trust, hou xiaodi proposed that he was alone in the united states and would need more power to face the american board of directors in the future.chen mo gave up the position of chairman and only retained the seat of director. this happened in march 2022. in june 2022, chen mo resigned as a director and completely left tusimple.

the day after he stepped down as a director, hou xiaodi launched an investigation into chen mo’s personal interests in heavy truck companies hydro and tusimple.

it is worth noting that the establishment of hydron was a unanimous decision of tusimple, and the company's board of directors discussed hydron's arrangements twice. hou xiaodi was not only present, but also had meeting minutes. however, when the new directors and the us security directors raised questions about hydron, hou xiaodi claimed that he had no knowledge of it at all. the chinese shareholders kept asking hou xiaodi "why didn't you tell the truth."

it was also because of this incident that the board of directors decided to remove hou xiaodi and invite chen mo to come back. in addition to asking lu cheng to return and serve as ceo again, chen mo also asked for hou xiaodi's super voting rights to be granted to him for a period of two years. the board of directors chose to agree. when lu cheng and chen mo took over again on november 10, 2022, tusimple's stock price had fallen by 80% in half a year.

it is noteworthy that the two-year super voting rights granted to chen mo will expire in november, when a new board of directors and chairman will be elected in december 2024. although most of the major shareholders stand on chen mo's side, hou xiaodi, who founded bot.auto and chose to continue to burn his dream of l4 autonomous driving, is also actively attracting small and medium shareholders and said that "tucson will definitely be taken back."