Aurora Innovation, Inc. — 2023 Form 10-K
Reporting period: Fiscal year ended December 31, 2023. This is an annual filing, not a standalone fourth-quarter report.
Business context
Aurora is developing the Aurora Driver, an autonomous-driving hardware and software platform. It reported no collaboration revenue in 2023 and was still conducting supervised autonomous trucking pilots. Its planned first commercial offering is Aurora Horizon, a driverless trucking subscription service, followed by passenger mobility and local delivery offerings. Aurora expects to earn fees per mile through a Driver as a Service model, initially operating a limited fleet itself before relying more on partners.
Key financial metrics
| Metric (USD millions, except per-share data) | 2023 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|
| Revenue | 0 | 68 |
| Research and development expense | 716 | 677 |
| Selling, general and administrative expense | 119 | 129 |
| Total operating expenses | 835 | 1,920 |
| Loss from operations | (835) | (1,852) |
| Net loss | (796) | (1,723) |
| Basic and diluted net loss per share | (0.60) | (1.51) |
| Net cash used in operating activities | (598) | (508) |
Gross and operating margins are not meaningful to compare because 2023 revenue was zero. The 2023 operating loss included no goodwill impairment; the 2022 results included a $1,114 million impairment. Other income was $59 million in 2023, including interest income; changes in derivative fair values resulted in a $20 million expense.
At year-end, Aurora had $501 million of cash and cash equivalents, $699 million of short-term investments, and $148 million of long-term investments. These totaled $1.348 billion, excluding $17 million of restricted cash. Total liabilities were $250 million, including $122 million of operating lease liabilities and $24 million of derivative liabilities; the filing does not report conventional borrowings. Stockholders’ equity was $1.985 billion. Cash used for property and equipment was $15 million.
Material changes versus 2022
- Revenue fell to zero from $68 million as Aurora had recognized all revenue associated with Toyota collaboration payments by year-end 2022.
- Net loss narrowed by $927 million, primarily because 2022 included the $1.114 billion goodwill impairment. Excluding that item, 2023 still had a substantial operating loss.
- R&D expense increased 6% to $716 million, mainly due to personnel and software development costs; SG&A declined 8% to $119 million, primarily due to lower insurance costs.
- Operating cash use increased by $90 million to $598 million, partly because 2022 included final Toyota collaboration receipts.
- Cash provided by financing was $831 million, mainly from the July 2023 private placement and public offering. Aurora issued approximately 306 million Class A shares in those transactions, increasing share count and diluting existing holders.
Outlook, risks and unusual items
- Management expects continued operating losses and negative operating cash flow while developing and commercializing the Aurora Driver. It stated that cash on hand and short-term investments should cover working capital and capital expenditure needs for at least 12 months from the filing date, while also saying additional capital may be needed.
- The filing provides no clear numerical revenue, earnings, or cash-flow guidance and no definitive commercial launch date in the supplied text. Management plans to launch trucking first, initially in Texas, but timing depends on technical readiness, safety validation, regulation, partners and operating execution.
- Key risks include delays or failure to achieve safe, reliable driverless operation; customer adoption and unit economics; competition; regulatory changes; dependence on partners and single-source suppliers, including Continental for future-generation hardware; and the need for additional financing.
- Cloud-hosting commitments totaled $163 million, payable through 2026. Operating lease liabilities were $122 million; an additional $32 million of future payments related to leases not yet commenced.
- Derivative-liability fair-value changes can cause non-cash earnings volatility. Aurora reported $24 million of derivative liabilities at year-end, including public and private warrants and sponsor earnout shares.
- The company reported no material loss contingencies for 2023. The independent auditor and management concluded internal control over financial reporting was effective as of December 31, 2023.
Most important facts for investors to verify
- Progress toward driverless commercialization: safety validation, operating domain, regulatory approvals and actual launch timing.
- Quarterly cash burn and whether the stated liquidity runway remains sufficient as development and launch costs evolve.
- Ability to convert pilot activity and partnerships into binding commercial arrangements, customer demand and viable per-mile economics.
- Funding needs and the potential effect of additional equity issuance, stock-based compensation and warrant exercises on dilution.
- Continental’s delivery and industrialization of hardware, and Aurora’s exposure to other single-source suppliers and operational dependencies.