Luminar Lines Up $22 Million Bidder for Its Lidar Business

Luminar has reached an agreement to sell its lidar business to Quantum Computing Inc. for $22 million, subject to a 5:00 p.m. CT Monday deadline, unless a higher bid is received.

The lidar maker, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in December, has already announced plans to sell its semiconductor subsidiary to Quantum Computing Inc. for $110 million. Both transactions remain subject to approval by a bankruptcy judge in the Southern District of Texas before they can be finalised.

Luminar founder and former CEO Austin Russell has expressed interest in submitting a bid for the lidar assets and previously attempted to acquire the entire company in October, before Luminar filed for bankruptcy. The company is currently trying to serve Russell with a subpoena seeking information stored on his cell phone as it evaluates potential legal claims arising from a board-led ethics investigation that led to his resignation last May. It is unclear how many competing bids Luminar may receive before the deadline.

Quantum Computing Inc. has been named the “stalking horse bidder,” a designation that establishes a minimum value for the assets and helps deter low offers during the bankruptcy process. Luminar has said it intends to move through the bankruptcy proceedings quickly, with its largest creditors — primarily financial institutions that lent the company money in recent years — helping to fund the process.

Even if Luminar ultimately secures a higher bid, the current stalking-horse offer underscores the company’s dramatic decline from its 2021 peak valuation, when its market capitalisation reached roughly $11 billion. That valuation was driven by expectations that its lidar sensors would see widespread adoption among major automakers. Volvo, for example, once planned to purchase more than 1 million of Luminar’s sensors before abandoning the deal in 2025. Other partnerships, including agreements with Mercedes-Benz and Polestar, also unravelled over time.

Quantum Computing Inc. was founded in 2001 as Ticketcart, which initially sold inkjet cartridges, according to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company acquired a beverage business in 2007, underwent its own restructuring a decade later, and eventually pivoted to develop optical technologies for the emerging quantum computing sector. In 2025, Quantum Computing Inc. raised more than $700 million through share sales, even as its revenue for the first nine months of last year totalled just $384,000.