The rumors were true and the SPAC is back. Kodiak Robotics announced Monday it has entered into an agreement with Ares Acquisition Corp. II (AACT), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company that will make Kodiak a publicly listed company valued at around $2.5 billion. The combined company will be named Kodiak AI Inc.

New and existing institutional investors for Kodiak include Soros Fund Management, ARK Investments and Ares. They have funded or committed to over $110 million in financing in addition to approximately $551 million in cash, held in trust.

Rumblings about the deal were announced last month by Bloomberg, with the blank check firm AACT led by David Kaplin having raised $450 million in April 2023. Prior to founding Kodiak Robotics in 2018, Don Burnette had previously worked for Google’s self-driving car project before it became Waymo. Burnette left Google after five years to found Otto, a self-driving truck startup later acquired by Uber. 

“This is a remarkable milestone for the Kodiak team and reinforces our confidence in the significant value proposition we see in our differentiated driverless technology,” said Burnette, founder and CEO of Kodiak in a news release. “We believe entering the public markets will accelerate our strategy to expand our existing partner relationships, provide our technology to a broader customer base, and deliver enhanced solutions across the commercial trucking and public sector industries.”

Kodiak boasts a first-to-market fully active driverless truck operation from its partnership with Atlas Energy Solutions operating in the Permian Basin. Kodiak announced in January it had completed the delivery of 100 loads of proppant with two RoboTrucks equipped with Kodiak Driver, Kodiak’s self-driving system. The Kodiak-powered Atlas trucks have over 750 hours of commercial driverless operations with further support inbound via a firm commitment by Atlas for an initial order of 100 trucks.

“As an early-mover in autonomous trucking and first to deliver a commercial driverless product to a customer, Kodiak has quickly set itself apart as an industry leader in a significant addressable market,” said David Kaplan, CEO and co-chairman of the board of directors of AACT and co-founder of Ares. “We are excited to partner with Don and the Kodiak team as they seek to further capitalize on significant industry tailwinds and deliver value for their stakeholders.”

Kodiak’s business model works via a Driver-as-a-Service business model. Customers use Kodiak-equipped RoboTrucks and are charged either a per-truck or per-mile recurring license fee. In the case of Atlas, Kodiak owns and operates autonomous trucks, and Atlas pays as a fee per delivery by the trucks.

The release notes that in addition to Atlas, Kodiak has collaborated with companies including Bridgestone, C.R. England, J.B. Hunt, Martin Brower and Werner Enterprises. Besides truckload operations, Kodiak has a Department of Defense contract for approximately $30 million to adapt its autonomous technology for U.S. Army vehicles. 

The autonomous freight space is projected to be lucrative. While Kodiak primarily operates in the Sunbelt, the company estimates that there is “a roughly $1 trillion market opportunity in the U.S. alone, with the potential for a total global addressable market of over $4 trillion.”

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