"Japan’s SoftBank plans to invest $2.25 billion into GM’s self-driving car unit Cruise to help bring fleets of autonomous vehicles to market faster. Softbank’s investment, made from its Vision Fund, will give the company (SFTBY, -0.76%) a 19.6% stake in Cruise, which has been operating as a separate unit from GM. GM (GM, -0.38%) said Thursday it will also invest $1.1 billion into GM’s Cruise upon closing of the transaction." -- "The Softbank investment in Cruise will be made in two parts. The first tranche of $900 million will be made at the closing of the transaction. Once Cruise’s autonomous vehicles are ready for commercial deployment, Softbank will complete the second investment of $1.35 billion. Softbank and GM Cruise have agreed to a 7-year term before either party can seek liquidity outside of the partnership." #self_driving #billion_dollar_deals #startups #YC_funded #cruise_automation #investments #pub