GM’s Cruise self-driving startup raises $2 billion led by Microsoft

GM announced that Cruise, its self-driving startup, has raised a new $2 billion financing round led by Microsoft.

The software giant is putting some skin in the self-driving game.

GM Cruise

Unlike other automakers having their automated driving divisions, GM went a different route and acquired Cruise, a San Francisco-based self-driving startup.

They have been heavily investing into the company, which has meant some great progress in developing self-driving cars based on the Chevy Bolt EV.

But GM has also surprised by still taking outside investments for Cruise since the acquisition.

They received $750 million from Honda in 2018 and in 2019, the company raised another $1.15 billion investment from Honda and institutional investors.

More recently, GM Cruise received the greenlight to operate the true driverless versions of their Chevy Bolt EVs in California.

Microsoft invests in GM Cruise

Today, GM announced a new $2 billion investment round in Cruise led by Microsoft:

“Microsoft will join General Motors, Honda and institutional investors in a combined new equity investment of more than $2 billion in Cruise, bringing the post-money valuation of Cruise to $30 billion.”

Cruise CEO Dan Ammann commented on the announcement:

“Our mission to bring safer, better and more affordable transportation to everyone isn’t just a tech race – it’s also a trust race. Microsoft, as the gold standard in the trustworthy democratization of technology, will be a force multiplier for us as we commercialize our fleet of self-driving, all-electric, shared vehicles.”

Along with the investment, Microsoft is going to become Cruise and GM’s “preferred cloud service provider”.

Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, commented:

“Advances in digital technology are redefining every aspect of our work and life, including how we move people and goods. As Cruise and GM’s preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream.”

GM CEO Mary Barra also added that the Microsoft partnership is going to “accelerate the commercialization of Cruise’s all-electric, self-driving vehicles.”