Walmart invests in Cruise autonomous vehicle pilot

Walmart’s investment brings the size of Cruise’s latest funding round to $2.75 billion, the companies said Thursday, up from the $2 billion Cruise announced in January when Microsoft Corp. became an investor.

“Today we’re taking the next step in our work with autonomous vehicles by making an investment in Cruise, the San Francisco-based company enabling a self-driving future through their all-electric fleet of self-driving cars. The investment will aid our work toward developing a last-mile delivery ecosystem that’s fast, low-cost and scalable,” Walmart U.S. CEO John Furner noted in a blog post on Walmart’s corporate website.

Walmart began its work with Cruise in November 2020 to develop a delivery pilot in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Furner said the investment is a place marker for Walmart as it demonstrates the retailer’s commitment to bringing the benefit of self-driving cars to the business to better serve customers.

Walmart joins General Motors, Honda and Microsoft who have already invested in the startup. Walmart said it will also continue the pilot in Bentonville with Waymo, a Google portfolio startup and other projects involving autonomous vehicles.