General Motors on March 18 said that it is buying SoftBank Vision Fund 1’s stake in autonomous-vehicle unit GM Cruise for $2.1 billion. The investment firm had invested $900 million in the company in 2018 and added around $300 million more in later funding rounds, according to Reuters.
GM is also putting a separate $1.35 billion into GM Cruise, the amount the Vision Fund was supposed to invest, per a 2018 agreement, once the division’s cars were ready for commercial deployment. GM Cruise in January started offering free rides to the public in San Francisco without a safety driver in the vehicle. It is currently waiting for a regulatory permit to charge for the service.
The two injections will increase GM’s stake in its subsidiary to around 80%. Honda, Microsoft, T. Rowe Price and Walmart also own stakes. In addition, on the same day GM Cruise Chief Executive Kyle Vogt said the company is setting up a scheme, dubbed the recurring liquidity opportunity, to allow employees past and present to sell vested equity once a quarter should they want to.FILE PHOTO: A Cruise self-driving car, which is owned by General Motors Corp, is seen outside the company’s headquarters in San Francisco where it does most of its testing, in California, U.S., September 26, 2018.