Japan's Turing Eyes $10 Billion IPO and a U.S. Beachhead

Japanese autonomous-driving startup Turing is planning to open a U.S. office and is weighing an initial public offering that would value the company at roughly $10 billion, Quartz reports.

The figure anchors a plan that would place Turing among the most richly valued startups Japan has produced in the automotive software sector. A $10 billion listing would put the company in rare company for a Japanese venture-backed firm, where domestic IPO valuations rarely approach that threshold.

The reported U.S. office signals where Turing sees its next phase of growth. American markets remain the deepest pool of capital for autonomous-vehicle companies, and several of the sector's dominant players — Waymo, Tesla, and a wave of robotaxi ventures — compete there directly. A physical presence in the United States would give Turing access to that talent pool, that customer base, and, if the IPO proceeds on a U.S. exchange or with U.S. investors in mind, that liquidity.

Quartz's report frames both moves — the office and the IPO consideration — as part of a single strategic push. The company has not publicly committed to a listing venue, a timeline, or final valuation, and the $10 billion figure should be read as a target under evaluation rather than a confirmed deal term.

For Japan's startup ecosystem, the report carries weight beyond one company. Tokyo has spent years trying to cultivate late-stage private companies capable of large public debuts, and the government has pushed reforms meant to channel more venture capital into deep-tech sectors such as robotics and autonomous driving. A self-driving startup publicly weighing a $10 billion IPO would test whether that pipeline can actually produce outcomes at the scale investors in the U.S. and China have long taken for granted.

The autonomous-driving market itself is consolidating around a small number of well-funded leaders. Waymo operates paid robotaxi services in several American cities. Tesla continues to roll out driver-assistance software it says will underpin an autonomous future. In China, Baidu's Apollo Go runs driverless rides at scale. Against that backdrop, a Japanese entrant with ambitions of a ten-figure valuation is making an explicit bet that the market still has room for new national champions.

The U.S. office plan suggests Turing also believes it cannot win from Japan alone. Autonomous-vehicle development demands long testing cycles, deep pockets, and proximity to regulators and partners. Establishing an American operation before an IPO would give the company a story that public-market investors already understand — and a footprint in the market where most of that investor base sits.

What remains unknown from the report is the state of Turing's underlying business: revenue, deployment scale, or commercial partnerships were not detailed in the Quartz account. Those numbers will decide whether a $10 billion valuation holds up under diligence. Investors have grown more disciplined about autonomous-driving valuations since the sector's early froth, when companies with pre-revenue models commanded multi-billion-dollar prices and several later collapsed or sold for fractions of their peak worth.

The timing also matters. Public-market windows open and close quickly, and IPO candidates that hesitate often watch comparable listings reprice their expectations downward. If Turing intends to list while investor appetite for AI-adjacent stories remains strong, the U.S. expansion would need to move first or in parallel.

For now, the report establishes two concrete intentions: an American office and a $10 billion IPO under consideration. Whether either hardens into a deal will reveal much about the maturity of Japan's autonomy sector — and about whether global investors will once again pay premium prices for the promise of driverless technology.