GM’s autonomous vehicle operations, GM Cruise is getting a big financial boost thanks to a $2.5 billion investment from the SoftBank Vision Fund. General Motors will also invest an additional $1.1 billion in GM Cruise when the deal with Softbank is finalized.
“Our Cruise and GM teams together have made tremendous progress over the last two years,” said GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra. “Teaming up with SoftBank adds an additional strong partner as we pursue our vision of zero crashes, zero emissions and zero congestion.”
The SoftBank Vision Fund investment will be made in two tranches. At the closing of the transaction, the Vision Fund will invest the first tranche of $900 million. Once the Cruise autonomous vehicles are ready, the Vision Fund will complete the second tranche of $1.35 billion. Together, this will result in the SoftBank Vision Fund owning a 19.6 percent equity stake in GM Cruise. The GM and SoftBank Vision Fund investments are expected to provide the capital necessary to reach commercialization at scale beginning in 2019.
“GM has made significant progress toward realizing the dream of completely automated driving to dramatically reduce fatalities, emissions and congestion,” said Michael Ronen, managing partner, SoftBank Investment Advisers. “The GM Cruise approach of a fully integrated hardware and software stack gives it a unique competitive advantage. We are very impressed by the advances made by the Cruise and GM teams, and are thrilled to help them lead a historic transformation of the automobile industry.”
Source: General Motors
