The shares of General Motors Corp. rose to record high on Tuesday after the automaker said it was partnering with Microsoft Corp. to speed up the sale of driverless cars.
As part of the “long-term strategic relationship”, Microsoft will join General Motors GM,
as well as Honda Motor Co. Ltd. HMC,
7267,
and institutional investors on a new $ 2 billion capital investment in GM Cruise’s self-driving vehicle start-up GM said the investment brings Cruise’s “post-cash valuation” to $ 30 billion.
GM shares rose 9.4% in morning trading to trade well above the January 14 record close of $ 51.53. Microsoft shares MSFT,
increased by 0.5%.
GM shares have now risen 31.3% so far this year as investors reap the benefits of GM’s all-in movement in the electric vehicle market. GM has outperformed other electric vehicle manufacturers for a year now, as shares of Tesla Inc. TSLA,
collected 18.6% from Nio Inc., based in China, NIO,
they rose by 17.4%.
Do not miss: GM accelerates electric vehicle plans as it runs to reach Tesla.
Cruise will use the Microsoft Azure cloud platform to market its autonomous vehicles on a large scale, while Azure will use Cruise’s industry expertise to enhance product innovation and serve its transportation customers.
“Microsoft is an excellent complement to the team as we move into a future world with zero accidents, zero emissions and zero congestion,” said GM CEO Mary Barra. “Microsoft will help us accelerate the sale of Cruise’s self-driving electric vehicles, and we will help GM reap even more benefits from cloud computing as we launch 30 new electric vehicles globally by 2025, and we create new businesses and services to stimulate growth. ”
GM’s Cruise rating is now approaching that of Ford Motor Co. F,
which has a market capitalization of $ 40.3 billion. Also in the EV, NKLA space from Nikola Corp.,
the market capitalization is $ 7.7 billion.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said: “Advances in digital technology are redefining every aspect of our work and life, including how we move people and goods. As a favorite cloud of Cruise and GM, we will apply the power of Azure to help them escalate and mainstream autonomous transport. ”
GM heels have risen 64.0% in the past three months, while the S&P 500 SPX,
gained 10.5%.