General Motors (GM) partners with Microsoft (MSFT) on self-driving vehicles project

Shares of General Motors (NYSE: GM) soared 9% on Tuesday after the company announced a partnership with Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) for the commercialization of its self-driving vehicles. GM’s shares have gained 63% over the past three months and 31% since the beginning of this year.

Partnership

Under the partnership, GM’s self-driving start-up Cruise will use Microsoft’s cloud computing platform Azure to commercialize its autonomous vehicle solutions at scale while Microsoft will use Cruise’s industry expertise to improve its product innovation and serve transportation companies around the world.  

Microsoft will join GM, Honda and institutional investors in a combined new equity investment of over $2 billion in Cruise. This will bring the post-money valuation of Cruise to $30 billion. GM will also work with Microsoft to accelerate its storage, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities as well as to bring new mobility services to customers.

“Microsoft will help us accelerate the commercialization of Cruise’s all-electric, self-driving vehicles and help GM realize even more benefits from cloud computing as we launch 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025 and create new businesses and services to drive growth.” – Mary Barra, Chairman and CEO, GM 

Electric vehicles

GM is working on accelerating the mass adoption of electric vehicles. The company plans to invest $27 billion in electric and autonomous vehicle products through 2025 and to launch 30 new electric vehicles globally by the end of 2025.

Sales

Earlier this month, GM reported that its total sales in the US rose 5% year-over-year while deliveries increased 12% in the fourth quarter of 2020. Retail deliveries were up 14%. The company grew its share across all three fleet segments with total fleet share rising nearly 2 points in the fourth quarter.

The company delivered 2.9 million vehicles in China in 2020. Sales in the region rose 14.1% year-over-year during the fourth quarter of 2020.

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