An unidentified bidder submitted a Hail Mary offer that was "substantially higher" than the winning bid at auction. Founder Austin Russell has been circling a bid, but it's not clear he was behind it.

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Luminar's bankruptcy sale to MicroVision for $33 million was approved despite a last-minute substantially higher bid, likely from founder Austin Russell. The mystery offer had unspecified issues that led Luminar to proceed with MicroVision's acquisition of its lidar business. MicroVision plans to use Luminar's long-range lidar technology and engineering team to expand into automotive markets, complementing its existing short-range capabilities. A second mysterious bidder with questionable Chinese financing also emerged earlier in the process but was rejected due to concerns about fund verification.

Luminar sale approved despite last-minute mystery bid