SoftBank Vision Fund to Pay $2.25B for 19.6% of GM’s Self-Driving Subsidiary

Technology venture-capital firm SoftBank Vision Fund will invest $2.25 billion for 19.6 percent of GM Cruise, the General Motors autonomous-vehicle subsidiary, “further strengthening the company’s plans to commercialize AV technology at large scale,” said the automaker Thursday. GM also will invest $1.1 billion in GM Cruise when the SoftBank transaction closes, it said. SoftBank will invest its first $900 million when the deal closes and pay the remaining $1.35 billion when Cruise AVs are “ready for commercial deployment,” said GM. GM Cruise is testing AVs in Arizona, California and Michigan, including in San Francisco, where the subsidiary is headquartered (see 1707260030 and 1707250067). GM is on track toward achieving AV “commercialization at scale in the dense urban environment” beginning in 2019, and “safety has been and will continue to be paramount in our commercialization effort,” said CEO Mary Barra on an April earnings call.