Aurora Innovation, Inc. AUR

Competitive advantage analysis · technology

Software & SaaS Specialized
Overall moat score
12/100
Weak

About Aurora Innovation, Inc.

Aurora Innovation, Inc. engages in the self-driving technology business in the United States. It focuses on developing Aurora Driver, a platform that brings a suite of self-driving hardware, software, and data services together to adapt and interoperate various vehicle types and applications. The company was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Full AUR analysis →

Competitive advantage assessment

Key strengths

  • Flexible Liquidity Position Liquidity position is healthy (score 0.95), supporting balance sheet resilience.

Key risks

  • Margin Compression Risk Margin quality is below peer norms (score 0.01), suggesting pricing pressure.
  • Weak Cash Conversion Cash conversion is weak (score 0.01), limiting evidence of scalable cash generation.

The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.

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Pricing Power

Weak
1

Where AUR ranks in Information Technology Services

Aurora Innovation, Inc. ranks #74 of 78 scored companies in Information Technology Services by moat score — the top 95%. The widest moat in the group is Mastercard Incorporated (MA) at 84/100.

Moat scores for companies ranked near AUR in Information Technology Services
# Company Moat score Rating
70 Veea Inc. VEEA 20/100 Weak
71 Jianzhi Education Technology Gr JZ 19/100 Weak
72 SAIHEAT Limited SAIH 17/100 Weak
73 Trident Digital Tech Holdings L TDTH 14/100 Weak
74 Aurora Innovation, Inc. AUR 12/100 Weak
75 Aurora Innovation, Inc. AUROW 12/100 Weak
76 BIT Mining Limited BTCM 0/100 Weak
77 Fiserv, Inc. FI 0/100 Weak
78 WNS (Holdings) Limited WNS 0/100 Weak

See every Software & SaaS company ranked by moat score →

How AUR scores on the Software & SaaS Specialized defenses

Pricing Power

Score 1 · 20% of the moat score

In software, pricing power is visible in gross margin: a vendor that has to discount in order to renew gives it up first.

Recurring Revenue Stickiness

Score 9 · 18% of the moat score

Recurring revenue is the model's central claim, and it is a moat only when customers renew and expand without being re-sold each year.

Innovation Engine

Score 2 · 16% of the moat score

Software is competed away rather than depreciated, so a vendor that stops investing loses its category.

Cash Scalability

Score 1 · 18% of the moat score

The test of a software business is whether growth eventually stops consuming cash.

Capital Efficiency

Score 13 · 16% of the moat score

A software platform employs very little capital, so a genuine franchise should produce high returns on it without leverage.

Balance Sheet Resilience

Score 58 · 12% of the moat score

Software companies fund years of customer acquisition before those customers pay back, which makes access to capital a strategic variable rather than a treasury detail.

How each Software & SaaS Specialized defense is measured, in full →

Understanding AUR's moat

What is Aurora Innovation, Inc.'s moat score?

Aurora Innovation, Inc. (AUR) scores 12 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as weak. It ranks #74 of 78 scored companies in Information Technology Services, the top 95%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 77 companies in Information Technology Services. Its strongest defense is Balance Sheet Resilience (58/100) and its weakest is Pricing Power (1/100).

How does Aurora Innovation, Inc. compare with other Information Technology Services companies?

Aurora Innovation, Inc. ranks #74 of 78 scored companies in Information Technology Services by moat score. The widest moat in Information Technology Services is Mastercard Incorporated (MA) at 84/100. The companies ranked closest are Trident Digital Tech Holdings L (TDTH) at 14 just above it and Aurora Innovation, Inc. (AUROW) at 12 just below it.

How is the moat score calculated?

Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Software & SaaS Specialized in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 77 companies in Information Technology Services. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.

Why is Aurora Innovation, Inc. scored with the Software & SaaS Specialized template?

Software costs almost nothing to reproduce, so the entire economic question is whether customers keep paying. Revenue is a subscription rather than a sale, the cost of winning a customer is paid years before that customer becomes profitable, and margins arrive only if renewals hold. The Software & SaaS template scores retention, reinvestment, and the point at which growth turns into cash.

Which competitive defenses are measured for Aurora Innovation, Inc.?

The Software & SaaS Specialized template measures 6 defenses, and AUR scores: Pricing Power (1), Recurring Revenue Stickiness (9), Innovation Engine (2), Cash Scalability (1), Capital Efficiency (13), Balance Sheet Resilience (58). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.

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