VW Invests $2.6 Billion into Argo AI as it Chases the Autonomous Car Dream

German car maker Volkswagen announced that it was making an investment of around $2.6 billon into autonomous car software maker Argo AI in July. The investment values Argo at just over $7 billion according to Reuters and will consist of a $1 billion cash injection as well as signing over of its European self-driving unit to Argo, which is currently valued at $1.6 billion for the deal. VW will also spend another $500m to buy shares in Argo from Ford – which itself invested $1 billion into Argo back in 2017. Ford and VW will have approximately 30% of the votes each with the remainder going to Argo’s founders and Argo employees. The Ford-VW partnership with Argo could help accelerate the deployment timetables of the two automakers who plan to put autonomous vehicles into operation in 2021. It is one of a number of such partnerships in the Autonomous Vehicle space which involve a combination of old school automakers and new high-tech software focused autonomous systems makers as they try to navigate what would be the most fundamental change in the Automotive Industry’s 130 years history. This isn’t the first-time high valuations have been reached for such companies, Google subsidiary Waymo may be worth $175 billion according to Morgan Stanley and Cruise Automations $6 billion investment from Softbank and Honda value it at $19 billion.