May 7, 2019

Cruise gets $1 billion in new investment, raising value to $19 billion

Self-driving technology company Cruise has raised $1.15 billion in fresh equity from a group comprising institutional investors, including funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates, and existing partners General Motors, SoftBank Vision Fund and Honda.

Why it matters: Deploying self-driving vehicles requires massive amounts of capital, and investors are beginning to line up around a handful of AV companies they think have the best shot. In the past year, Cruise has secured capital commitments totaling $7.25 billion.

The latest investment puts Cruise's post-money valuation to $19.0 billion.

"Developing and deploying self-driving vehicles at massive scale is the engineering challenge of our generation," said Cruise CEO Dan Ammann. "Having deep resources to draw on as we pursue our mission is a critical competitive advantage."

What to watch: AV companies are in a war for talent. The fresh capital could help Cruise attract top engineers looking for the winning hand.

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Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

President Trump berated the nation’s governors in a video teleconference call Monday, calling many of them "weak" and demanding tougher crackdowns on the protests that erupted throughout the country following the killing of George Floyd, according to multiple reports.

The big picture: Trump blamed violence on the "the radical left" and told the governors, who were joined by law enforcement and national security officials, that they have to "dominate" protesters and "arrest people" in order to bring an end to the unrest.

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Putin sets referendum that could allow him to rule until 2036 for July 1

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Why it matters: Putin was forced to delay the referendum from April due to the coronavirus pandemic, and has set the date despite Russia's continued struggles to contain its outbreak. Putin's popularity has fallen in recent weeks amid his response to the pandemic and its economic repercussions.

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Dan Primack

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A busy week for IPOs despite upheaval from protests and pandemic

Illustration: Eniola Odetunde/Axios

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Why it matters: This shouldn't be happening, under any traditional rubric for how markets work.

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