General Motors Co. announced on Thursday that SoftBank Vision Fund will invest $2.25 billion in the automaker's driverless car company GM Cruise LLC. In addition, GM will also inject $1.1 billion into the unit after the deal is closed. The Japanese bank's investment will be made in two parts, $900 million at the closing of the transaction and $1.35 billion after GM's Cruise AV vehicles are ready for commercial deployment, expected at the start of 2019. The deal will result in SoftBank Group Corp.'s fund owning 19.6% of GM Cruise.
"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 at 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."
Following the announcement, GM's shares jumped 7.27% in pre-market trade.
