Executives of tech companies operating in both the U.S. and China are taking steps to break apart their businesses to avoid the kind of political and regulatory pressure facing TikTok and its Chinese parent, ByteDance.
The latest example of U.S.-China corporate decoupling involves two developers of self-driving trucks, both founded in California, that test prototypes and employ software and hardware engineers in both countries. Plus, which was valued at nearly $3.3 billion in a private fundraising earlier this year, is discussing a deal in which its largest Chinese shareholder would significantly reduce its stake and voting control over the company’s U.S. unit while simultaneously taking a majority stake in its China unit, according to two people with knowledge of the previously unreported talks.