Mary Barra, who has been CEO of General Motors for seven years, said the company has no immediate plans to pursue Tesla’s Bitcoin purchase.
Barra said during GM’s Q4 2020 earnings call today that the firm will monitor demand for customers who want to pay for vehicles with Bitcoin (BTC), but are not yet planning to make a massive crypto purchase like Tesla .
“This is something we will monitor and evaluate,” she said. ‘If there’s a strong customer demand for it in the future, there’s nothing stopping us from doing so.
“We have no plans to invest in Bitcoin, so there is a point of silence.”
General Motors, an American institution, was not always at the forefront of innovation. The firm scrapped one of the earliest mass-produced electric vehicles, the EV1, in the early 2000s. The then CEO, Rick Wagoner, later called it one of the worst decisions during his time at GM in terms of the company image.
However, the company is not completely connected to the blockchain ecosystem. GM currently holds several blockchain-based patents, including patents for managing data from autonomous vehicles and for constantly updating a vehicle’s navigation map system. In addition, the company, along with other automakers, has launched the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative, a group that wants to improve transportation using blockchain technology.
In the wake of Tesla’s $ 1.5 billion Bitcoin acquisition this week, some executives at large companies have been asked directly whether they will follow the example of the carmaker and invest in crypto, or consider using it for payments in the future. offer. Although Ned Segal, CFO of Twitter, said the tech company is investigating the possibility of paying its employees in BTC, not many companies have yet suggested that they follow suit.
GM’s market capitalization is about a tenth the size of Tesla, at $ 77.9 billion, although by Q3 2020 it had more than $ 36 billion in cash on hand – enough to acquire nearly 800,000 BTC after the price of the crypto asset today fell below $ 45,000.