Ousted Luminar CEO Austin Russell wants to buy the company

Summary

Austin Russell, the billionaire founder of Luminar, has made a bid to acquire the lidar-maker five months after he was replaced as CEO following an ethics inquiry. The takeover effort was disclosed in an SEC filing by Russell early Friday morning. It would involve his new company, Russell AI Labs, purchasing 100% of the outstanding shares of Luminar’s Class A Common Stock for an undisclosed price. If it happens, Luminar would remain publicly traded, and Russell AI Labs may “acquire a different, larger global automotive technology company” and merge it with Luminar “to create a unified technology platform business (‘Luminar 2.0’),” according to the filing. If that happens, Russell himself may also invest in the newly combined company. The proposal was made on October 14, “at the suggestion of certain shareholders” of Luminar and “the invitation of certain members of the board” — though the filing does not name names. Luminar and Russell AI Labs did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The proposed acquisition is just as sudden and surprising as Russell’s replacement in May. Luminar announced Russell’s resignation on May 19, the same day that the company reported its first-quarter earnings. The company tapped former Xerox executive Paul Ricci to take over. The company offered no details about why Russell was out aside from saying the board’s audit committee had conducted a “code of business conduct and ethics inquiry.” Luminar has yet to explain what that inquiry found. It has been sued by shareholders multiple times over the move and the way it was disclosed. That said, Russell is no stranger to takeover attempts. In 2023, he launched a bid to buy Forbes. But that ultimately failed after some of the investors in the acquisition reportedly didn’t follow through. The bid process was also marred by an alleged connection to a Russian oligarch. Techcrunch event San Francisco | October 27-29, 2025 Russell has remained on Luminar’s board and was supposed to be ...