Amazon Gets Option on Plus Stake Tied to Purchases of Autonomous Truck Systems

In June 2021, Amazon deepened its involvement in autonomous trucking. A securities filing showed it had received a warrant to take an equity stake of up to about 20% in Plus, a California-based developer of self-driving truck technology.

The arrangement was disclosed in an 8-K filing on June 21, 2021, by Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. V. Hennessy was the special purpose acquisition company planning to take Plus public, FreightWaves reported.

How the deal worked

The warrant was contingent on purchases. According to FreightWaves, Amazon could earn the stake if it bought up to $150 million worth of PlusDrive systems. The warrant covered up to 420,702,410 Series C-1 preferred shares of Plus, representing about 20% of the company on a fully diluted basis. Amazon had eight years to exercise it, subject to specific requirements.

FreightWaves reported that Amazon had chosen Plus as its autonomy-enabled truck provider after evaluating several developers in 2019. A master purchase agreement signed in January 2021 called for Plus to supply at least some of 1,000 PlusDrive units between February 2021 and 2023. The Verge, citing Bloomberg, also reported that Amazon had ordered 1,000 of the systems.

Context

The Plus deal was the latest in a series of Amazon moves in automated vehicles. The Verge noted Amazon had hauled freight with self-driving trucks from Embark in 2019, took part in a large investment round in Aurora, invested in electric van maker Rivian and acquired robotaxi developer Zoox.

Plus had announced plans to go public by merging with Hennessy Capital V. The Verge reported that the deal was expected to bring Plus about $500 million and value the company at roughly $3.3 billion.

What it means for drivers and fleets

For fleets, a major shipper tying an equity stake to equipment purchases showed how large freight owners were starting to shape the technology. That could influence what systems carriers serving those shippers would be asked to run.

For drivers, the deal was another sign that large shippers were investing in automation. The open questions were how quickly systems like PlusDrive would reach regular freight lanes and how they would change the driving task.