PlusAI clears SEC hurdle for SPAC merger, eyes February debut

PlusAI, the autonomous trucking technology company, is poised to become a publicly traded company in February 2026 following completion of its merger with Churchill Capital Corp IX, according to chief executive officer David Liu in an interview with FreightWaves.

The Silicon Valley-based autonomous trucking software provider has spent the past six months navigating the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) review process for its S-4 filing, which was declared effective in late January, clearing the path for a shareholder vote scheduled for Feb. 3.

The merger agreement with Churchill Capital, announced in June 2025, is a major milestone in PlusAI’s decade-long journey to commercialize autonomous trucking technology. The 800-page S-4 document details the company’s business plan, financials and regulatory disclosures required for public market entry.

“2026 is going to be an inflection point for us as a company,” Liu said. “We announced a merger agreement with Churchill Capital back in June 2025. And for the past six months, we’ve been working through getting our S-4 filing declared effective.”

The process to complete its S-4 document was months in the making. Liu noted that the typical SEC review process takes approximately three months, followed by four weeks of final preparations before trading begins.

PlusAI also strengthened its leadership ahead of the public offering with two significant board appointments.

Ahead of the public listing, PlusAI announced on Jan. 7 the appointment of two new board members: David C. Peterschmidt and Harry J. Harczak, Jr. Both appointments become effective upon the company’s public listing.

Peterschmidt brings extensive technology industry experience, having served as chief operating officer for Sybase and chief executive officer for Inktomi. Liu noted that Peterschmidt “scaled a company from a few folks to over 2,000 people and took it public.”

Harczak, a former senior partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, will serve as audit committee chair for the PlusAI board. He previously served as chief financial officer for CDW, which he took public.

“We are honored to welcome David and Harry to the PlusAI Board,” Liu said. “Their addition to the board reinforces our commitment to robust governance and financial stewardship as we transition into the public markets.”

PlusAI has been validating its autonomous driving technology through partnerships with Volkswagen’s Traton Group, which includes the International brand in the United States, as well as Scania and MAN in Europe. The company is targeting 2027 as the year when autonomy-enabled trucks will be available to customers.

The firm monitors three key performance metrics. The safety case readiness metric, which measures the technology’s ability to address all identified safety scenarios, currently stands at 90% after improving by more than 15 percentage points over the past 12 months.

Remote Assistance Free Trips (RAFT) increased to 79%, up from 76.2% in the first half of 2025. This metric tracks trips completed without intervention from a remote operation center. Autonomous Miles Percentage reached 99.2%.

“We want to make sure these metrics continue to improve to a point where we’re comfortable taking the product to scale,” Liu said.

The company operates commercial trials in Texas along routes connecting Dallas, San Antonio and Houston, with plans to expand to additional routes in coming quarters. PlusAI employs a point-to-point operational model, transporting goods from customer warehouses onto highways and to destination warehouses without requiring intermediate hubs.

Liu emphasized the importance of original equipment manufacturer partnerships for achieving commercial scale, noting that fleet customers prefer purchasing from established truck manufacturers rather than technology startups. The company has partnered with Traton, Iveco and other manufacturers to deliver factory-installed autonomous systems rather than retrofit solutions.

“OEM partnerships and factory installation are the only way to get to scale,” Liu said. “Fleets do not want to buy at scale from technology upstarts. They want to buy that from 100-year-old companies from which they have been buying trucks in volume for the past few decades.”

Looking ahead, PlusAI maintains operations in Europe through its OEM partnerships, with a team based in Munich supporting continental customers. The company recently announced a three-year pilot program with Iveco and SES, a Spain- and Germany-based fleet network, to deploy Level 4 autonomous trucking operations across those markets.

Liu projects that European deployment will follow a timeline similar to that of the United States, operating along the major commercial trucking corridor stretching from Scandinavia through Germany to Spain.

The company also announced a strategic partnership with Tokyo-based T2 to accelerate Level 4 autonomous truck deployment in Japan.

The company anticipates additional announcements in coming months as it advances toward commercial deployment and establishes itself as a publicly traded autonomous vehicle technology provider.

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