Travis Kalanick, the founder of Uber, is reportedly exploring options to acquire the U.S. division of Pony AI, a Chinese company that specializes in autonomous vehicles, as stated by The New York Times. Kalanick is allegedly collaborating with investors to secure financing for the potential acquisition, and Uber may potentially play a role in facilitating the transaction, according to the Times.

Pony AI completed its initial public offering last year with a market capitalization of approximately $4.5 billion prior to the publication of The New York Times report. The report indicates that Pony AI began preparing its U.S. division for a potential sale or spinoff as early as 2022, including the creation of a separate version of its source code.

If Kalanick succeeds in acquiring Pony AI, it would mark his return to the self-driving vehicle industry for the first time since his departure from Uber in 2017. During his tenure at Uber, the company was actively developing its own autonomous vehicle technology.

In 2018, one of Uber’s test vehicles was involved in a fatal accident in Arizona, resulting in the death of a pedestrian. Following this incident, Kalanick’s successor, Dara Khosrowshahi, decided to sell Uber’s self-driving division to Aurora, a startup specializing in autonomous trucking. Under Khosrowshahi’s leadership, Uber has adopted a partnership approach, integrating self-driving cars from companies like Waymo into its platform.

In recent years, Kalanick has increasingly focused on robotics while leading his cloud kitchen company, CloudKitchens. According to reports, if he were to acquire Pony AI, he would continue to oversee CloudKitchens on a day-to-day basis.

In a statement made at an event in March, Kalanick expressed his belief that Uber was close to catching up with Waymo in the development of autonomous vehicle technology at the time of his departure from the company. He also acknowledged that Uber’s decision to sell its self-driving division was a missed opportunity, stating, “Wish we had an autonomous ride-sharing product right now. That would be great.”