On April 18, 2019, Toyota Motor Corp., DENSO Corporation and the SoftBank Vision Fund (SVF) announced that they will invest USD 1 billio in Uber Technologies Inc.'s Advanced Technologies Group (Uber ATG).
The investment, in a newly formed ATG corporate entity, aims to accelerate the development and commercialization of autonomous ridesharing services. Under the terms, Toyota and DENSO will together invest USD 667 million and SVF will invest USD 333 million, valuing the new Uber ATG entity at USD 7.25 billion on a post-money basis. The transaction is expected to close in Q3 of calendar year 2019.
Toyota invested USD 500 million in Uber in August 2018, when the two companies announced their intention to bring pilot-scale deployments of automated Toyota Sienna-based ridesharing vehicles to the Uber ridesharing network in 2021.
Today's further investment and expanded partnership builds upon the progress made to date, deepening the companies' collaboration in designing and developing next-generation autonomous vehicle hardware. It will also prepare the companies and industry for mass production and commercialization of autonomous ridesharing vehicles and services. Toyota will also contribute up to an additional USD 300 million over the next three years to help cover the costs related to these activities.