Shares of General Motors Corp shot up in a record area on Tuesday, after the carmaker said it was working with Microsoft Corp to accelerate the commercialization 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 $ 2 billion joint venture investment in GM’s startup Cruise. GM said the investment brought the “valuation to money” of $ 30 billion.
GM’s stock rose 9.4% in morning trading, trading well above the January 14 record of $ 51.53. Microsoft shares MSFT,
Increased by 0.5%.
GM’s share has risen 31.3% so far this year as investors reap the benefits of GM’s all-in-move to the electric vehicle market. To date, GM has outperformed other electric vehicle manufacturers as shares of TESla Inc. TSLA,
increased by 18.6% and the Nio Inc. NIO in China,
it increased by 17.4%.
Do not miss: GM accelerates planning of electric vehicles while overtaking Tesla.
Cruise will use Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform to commercialize its autonomous vehicles on a large scale, while Azure will use Cruise’s expertise to improve product innovation and serve its transportation customers.
“Microsoft is an excellent addition to the team as we move toward a future world of zero accidents, release and no congestion,” said GM CEO Mary Barra. Microsoft will help us accelerate the commercialization of Cruise’s fully electric, self-driving vehicles and help GM achieve even more benefits from cloud computing as we launch 30 new electric vehicles worldwide by 2025 and create new businesses and services to grow to promote. “
The valuation of GM’s Cruise now concludes with that of Ford Motor Co. F,
which has a market capitalization of $ 40.3 billion. Also in the EV space, Nikola Corp. see NKLA,
market capitalization is $ 7.7 billion.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, said: “Advances in digital technology define every aspect of our work and life, including how we move people and goods. As the preferred cloud of Cruise and GM, we will apply the power of Azure to help them primarily increase autonomous transportation. ”
GM’s tock has risen 64.0% over the past three months, while the S&P 500 index SPX,
achieved 10.5%.