LUMINAR STOCK IPO DRIVER

Nevertheless, this small business holds a lot of promise if it can continue to advance its lidar technology. Investors will need to exercise some patience here, as a lot of hype is still priced into the stock. Thus, Luminar is on a clear path to becoming a viable auto supplier business over the next couple of years.

DRIVE Hyperion will go into production for 2024 model year cars. And it was recently announced that Nvidia ( NVDA -1.30%) had selected Luminar's lidar sensors to go into the Nvidia DRIVE Hyperion autonomous vehicle platform, an integrated computer and sensor suite that automakers can use to supply their vehicles with self-driving features. Revenue last quarter was up 89% year over year.

LUMINAR STOCK IPO DRIVER

So why keep tabs on Luminar? While I'm personally not ready to buy the stock yet, the company is making fast progress as automakers start to incorporate lidar technology into their advanced driver assist systems (ADAS). But at this stage, valued at a market cap of $5.8 billion, Luminar is a high-risk investment. On its balance sheet, the company had $129 million in cash and another $416 million in short-term investments, so it has a few years' worth of liquidity to cover its losses as it attempts to develop into a viable business. In the third quarter of 2021, Luminar's revenue was a mere $8 million, and it booked an adjusted net loss of $36 million.

But for now, Luminar is a start-up that's working hard to develop its wares and secure deals with auto suppliers. Lidar (which stands for 'light detection and ranging') uses lasers to help a vehicle 'see' what's around it, and could feature prominently in the systems that eventually allow for fully self-driving cars. Lidar technology specialist Luminar was off to the races following its IPO in late 2020, but the stock spent much of 2021 in steady decline as investors' excessive early optimism gradually wore off. Luminar Technologies: Crawling toward a viable vehicle autonomy business

Luminar stock ipo