DETROIT (AP) – General Motors (GM) said on Friday that it is paying USD2.1 billion to buy out Japanese tech investment firm Softbank’s stake in the Detroit automaker’s Cruise autonomous vehicle subsidiary.
Softbank paid USD2.25 billion for a 20 per cent stake in Cruise in 2018 as part of a wave of investment in self-driving technology.
GM also said it is making an additional USD1.35 billion investment in Cruise, in which it acquired a majority stake in 2016. Others Cruise investors include Honda, Microsoft, mutual fund company T Rowe Price, and Walmart.
Cruise is operating a small fleet of autonomous vehicles in San Francisco that it opened to the general public at the beginning of February.
