Luminar won the lidar business for a higher price in a court-sponsored auction that ended Monday, according to a new filing in the company’s bankruptcy case.
Redmond, Wash.-based MicroVision, which is developing its own lidar sensor, submitted a bid of $33 million, beating the $22 million offered by Quantum Computing, a so-called “chasing horse” bidder, a few weeks ago. (Quantum Computing Inc. raised its bid to $28 million, but was apparently unwilling or unable to raise more than that.)
MicroVision announced in a statement Tuesday that it will acquire “the Iris and Halo lidar sensors, key engineering and operational personnel, and intellectual property and inventory related to certain commercial contracts and orders.”
“It’s no secret that the LiDAR market is ripe for disruption and requires further consolidation,” said MicroVision CEO Glen DeVos. “Building on our proven executive leadership in the automotive sector, our history of developing and delivering products in the defense sector, and our even broader portfolio of technologically diverse lidar sensors and advanced recognition solutions, we believe Microvision is poised to transform the industry and enable widespread commercial adoption and significant safety improvements.”
Going forward, any sale of Luminar’s LiDAR business will require approval from a bankruptcy judge. A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
It’s unclear whether Luminar founder and former CEO Austin Russell has made a bid for the company’s lidar assets. Russell sought to acquire the company outright through his new business, Russell AI Labs, in October 2025 before it filed for bankruptcy, and expressed interest in making a bid during the bankruptcy process. Representatives for Mr. Russell did not respond to requests for comment.
Still, Mr. Russell and Mr. Luminar spent the first month of the bankruptcy case fighting over subpoenas. The company said it was still considering whether to take legal action against Russell in connection with his resignation last May following an ethics investigation by the board. Russell had already handed over his computer to Luminar, but he wouldn’t let go of his phone until he received assurances from the company that all personal information on the device would be protected. Mr. Luminar accused him of evading the subpoena.
Russell finally agreed to accept the subpoena last week. Over the weekend, he and Luminar jointly filed in court the terms of a personal information protection order.
If the sale of the LIDAR assets goes through, Luminar’s bankruptcy case filed in December could end fairly quickly. The company has already reached an agreement to sell its other business units, mainly semiconductors, to Quantum Computing Corp. for $110 million.
This article has been updated with a statement from MicroVision.
