Volkswagen closes $2.6 billion investment in Argo AI

Volkswagen has closed its $2.6 billion investment in self-driving startup Argo AI, who is based on Pittsburgh. The automaker disclosed in a blog post on Tuesday.

Argo, established in 2016 by Bryan Salesky and Peter Rander, is now jointly controlled by Volkswagen and Ford Motor, which made an initial investment in Argo after it was established.

Information regarding the VW investment, which does not include an agreement to purchase $500 million worth of Argo stock from Ford, was declared last July.

VW’s agreement consists of the transfer to Argo of its Munich-based Autonomous Intelligent Driving unit, which increases Argo’s employment to over 1,000, according to Salesky.

Last week, VW revealed that its supervisory board had approved several projects in a multibillion-dollar alliance with Ford which was also announced last July.

Ford created Ford Autonomous Vehicles LLC in 2018, vowing to invest $4 billion until 2023 and had sought outside investors to help share the soaring cost of developing autonomous automobiles.