- General
- July 13, 2019
- 5 minutes read
Argo AI Now On Par With Self-Driving Competitors
A Ford self-driving car image: Ford Volkswagen recently announced a $2.6 billion investment in Argo AI, Ford’s self-driving unit. The…
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| A Ford self-driving car
image: Ford
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Volkswagen recently announced a $2.6 billion investment in Argo AI, Ford’s self-driving unit. The investment consists of $1 billion in cash commitments and the transfer of Volkswagen’s $1.6 billion valued self-driving unit. With this investment, Argo AI now stands on par with other self-driving competitors including Alphabet’s Waymo, GM Cruise and Uber ATG, three self-driving companies backed by billions of dollars in funding.
Argo AI’s first known funding was a $1 billion commitment [over five years] by Ford in 2017. Ford has so far put in $400 million as agreed, and will invest the remaining $600 million atop Volkswagen’s $1 billion cash commitment. Volkswagen’s funding and the addition of its self-driving unit adds fuel to Argo’s operations in a capital and talent intensive area.
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| (Starting from left) Volkswagen CEO Herbert Diess, Ford CEO Jim Hackett and Argo AI CEO Brian Salesky
image: Ford
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Other self-driving companies have raised huge funding to maintain operations even without operational businesses. To note a few; a $2.25 billion investment in GM Cruise from Softbank was recently cleared by U.S. regulators, atop another $1.15 billion in funding from a group of investors in the General Motors-owned unit. Uber ATG also recently raised $1 billion in funding from Toyota, Denso and Softbank.
Argo having much capital will enable it fund research operations and recruit [sometimes expensive] top talent. Its valuation has also vaulted to more than $7 billion with this investment. Argo plans to deploy commercial robotaxi fleets in Europe and the U.S., and has gotten a new European HQ from Volkswagen as part of the transaction. Volkswagen’s self-driving unit [with more than 200 employees] in Europe will now serve as European headquarters for Argo AI.
Ford and Volkswagen’s partnership doesn’t stop at self-driving tech, but also stretches into electric car technology. Ford has also announced it’ll build more than 600,000 electric vehicles on a modular architecture made by Volkswagen.
