Luminar Lidar to Integrate with NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion AI Platform; Shares Jump

At the NVIDIA GPU Technology Conference (GTC), Luminar Technologies (LAZR), the global automotive lidar hardware and software technology provider, announced that its lidar solution has been selected to integrate into the sensor suite of semiconductor maker Nvidia Corporation’s (NVDA) AI vehicle computing platform for autonomous vehicles.

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Following the news, shares of Luminar jumped 15% to close at $20.12 on Tuesday.

Markedly, the production of the AI vehicle computing platform, DRIVE Hyperion, is planned to commence in 2024. The platform is expected to enhance the development of autonomous consumer vehicles.

The platform will utilize one forward-facing long-range Luminar Iris lidar in its Level 3 highway driving configuration. Notably, the company has designed the architecture of Iris’ custom lidar to meet the performance, safety and automotive-grade requirements, which would enable next-generation safety and assisted and autonomous driving on production vehicles. (See Luminar Technologies stock charts on TipRanks)

Official Comments

The Senior VP of Engineering at NVIDIA, Gary Hicok, said, “Our collaboration with Luminar bolsters the DRIVE ecosystem of companies that are focused on building best-in-class technologies for enabling autonomous driving functionalities. Luminar is pioneering a unique, scalable solution that complements the NVIDIA DRIVE Hyperion platform.”

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Wall Street’s Take

On November 8, Deutsche Bank analyst Emmanuel Rosner maintained a Buy rating on the stock with a price target of $23 (14.31% upside potential).

Rosner expects Luminar Technologies to report a loss per share of $0.11 for the fourth quarter of 2021.

The rest of the Street is cautiously optimistic about the stock and has a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on 3 Buys and 2 Holds. The average Luminar Technologies price target of $26 implies 29.2% upside potential from current levels. Shares have gained 97.5% over the past year.

Risk Analysis

According to the new TipRanks’ Risk Factors tool, the Luminar Technologies stock is at risk mainly from three factors: Finance and Corporate, Legal and Regulatory and Production, which contribute 32%, 18% and 16%, respectively, to the total 79 risks identified for the stock.