General Motors Co. buys Softbank’s stake in its Driverless Car Unit Cruise

General Motors is buying SoftBank Vision Fund L.P.’s stake in ts cruise division for $2.1 billion, almost four years after the Japanese investment firm joined the carmaker is betting on driverless car technology. The company also announced an additional investment of $1.35 billion in GM Cruise Holdings LLC.

General Motors’s ownership in Crusie will be about 80% and SoftBank will no longer have an ownership interest in or have any rights to cruise after the transaction is completed. 

Investors have speculated for years that GM can spin off Cruise. Some analysts wonder if Cruise CEO Dan Ammann's sudden resignation in December indicates that GM wants to continue its business in-house longer than investors expected. 

Cruise has pushed back its commercialisation plans in recent years as it refines its autonomous driving capabilities. It also announced in October its plans to roll out thousands of robot taxis in the USA in future. It also claimed that Cruise can reap $50 billion in revenue by the end of this decade.

GM CEO Mary Barra recently said  Detroit carmakers want to continue refining technology and plans for the future robotic taxi business before making decisions about the future of the company. However, she added that the Cruise split could be at the table at some point in the future.