March 22, 2022—General Motors on Friday said it is buying out Japanese tech company Softbank's 20 percent stake in the automaker's AV subsidiary Cruise for $2.1 billion.

According to a report from the Detroit Free Press, the move comes as GM steps up its investment in its autonomous vehicle development -- during the announcement, the automaker said it will invest an additional $1.35 billion into Cruise.

With the transaction, GM will now hold an 80 percent stake in Cruise according to a report from IoT World Today, with companies such as Honda, Microsoft and Walmart holding the remaining 20 percent. Per that same report, the $1.35 billion investment from General Motors will replace an investment of the same size promised by Softbank back in 2018. 

Cruise is currently operating a small AV fleet in San Francisco that was recently opened to public rides, and General Motors just received approval from the state of California to deploy autonomous vehicles.