AEye
LidarUSA
New to Unitard
π Public < $1B
PeakΒ $2 BillionToday
β97%
from peak
- π¦Became a unicorn2021
- πPeak valuation$2 Billion β21
- πBecame a Unitard2022
- πΈLast valuation~$55.5M
Current status
Public (LIDR)
Live Β· LIDRΒ· NasdaqCM
as of 2026-09-21
$1.19βΌ 3.25% today
βΒ $55.5 Million market cap Β· β97.2% from peak
The rise & fall
5 moments Β· 2013β2026The key moments.
2013
2013
Founded in California
Luis Dussan applies aerospace targeting ideas to an adaptive lidar for self-driving cars.
Wikipedia
2021
2021
The peak: a $2B SPAC debut$2B
Merges with a Cantor Fitzgerald SPAC to list on the Nasdaq at the top of the lidar boom β unicorn and public company at once.
SEC filing
2022
2022
Slips out of the club
Shares collapse with the rest of the de-SPAC lidar cohort as autonomous-vehicle adoption lags and losses mount.
Google Finance
2022β26
2022β26
The long lidar winter
The market cap grinds down to roughly $0.1B β about 5% of the debut.
Google Finance
Today
Today
Still in the club β and still trading
Live Β· LIDR Β· NasdaqCMas of 2026-09-21
$1.19βΌ 3.25% todayβ $55.5M cap Β· β97.2% from peak
How it happened
AEye is a lidar developer for autonomous vehicles that went public via SPAC in 2021 at a valuation of roughly $2B. Like most de-SPAC lidar companies, its shares collapsed amid slow adoption and heavy losses, with its market cap falling to around $0.1B (~-95% from peak), dropping it far below unicorn status.
Source: Google Finance June 2026
Founders & leadership
- Luis Dussanfounder & CTO (designed targeting systems at Northrop Grumman and Lockheed before founding it in 2013)
Current roles as self-reported on LinkedIn, retrieved 2026-08-20. See our methodology.
