GM’s $900M battery push ties AI to faster EV output

GM $900M – GM is putting $900 million into LMR EV battery development and a new Battery Cell Development Center to cut costs and preserve range—while the company also leans on a mix of in-house and outside AI models to speed up vehicle development. In the background, the

He toured GM’s sprawling Warren Technical Center outside Detroit. walked through the places built for testing what comes next. and heard the same promise repeated in different forms: the next generation of EVs has to be cheaper without giving up range. GM’s answer is a $900 million battery push—built around LMR batteries—and a new Battery Cell Development Center positioned as the bridge between R&D and full-scale production.

Kurt Kelty, GM’s VP of battery and sustainability, shared details of the initiative, including how the company believes its new chemistry can preserve range while slashing costs. The financial target is concrete: the Chevrolet Silverado EV could be $6,000 cheaper.

GM’s battery plan doesn’t live in a vacuum. The company is also using AI across parts of its business, and not just as an occasional assistant. Tim De Chant’s reporting says Sterling Anderson. GM’s chief product officer. and Jason Fischer. executive director of virtual integration engineering. talked about how internal changes and AI are reshaping development work. A story on that topic is described as coming next week, but De Chant offered a preview now.

GM, he wrote, is using a collection of outside AI models as well as ones it has created in-house. Those tools are meant to be deployed across large swaths of the business and—this part is key—to speed up GM’s vehicle development cycle.

It’s a rare pairing: battery chemistry aimed at the physical bottlenecks of cost and range. alongside AI aimed at the timeline bottlenecks of engineering and iteration. The practical question for readers is simple. and it sits behind every number GM is putting on the record: if the development cycle speeds up while the batteries get cheaper. what does that mean for how quickly competitive EV pricing moves from promise to showroom?.

That same sense of momentum is showing up elsewhere in mobility this week. from high-stakes financing filings to fresh funding rounds and expanding robotaxi footprints. In SpaceX’s IPO registration process. amendments have been filed before the company’s public-market debut. and a newly added sentence in the S-1 document is catching attention: “We may issue a significant amount of equity in connection with future transactions.” The implication drawn here is tied to risk factors and investor expectations—potentially preparing the market for a major dilution event. While SpaceX is expected to raise $75 billion, the write-up notes that a possible acquisition route could include Tesla.

Carvana also made a deal move in the background. Documents obtained by TechCrunch say Carvana has been granted the option to invest in Slate Auto, an electric vehicle startup backed by Jeff Bezos. The reporting suggests the option could hint at a deeper partnership between the two companies.

Funding and startup wins kept coming. Layup Parts. a startup aiming to become the Amazon of composite parts. raised $42 million in a Series A round led by dual-use venture fund Marlinspike. Cerberus Ventures and Pinegrove Venture Partners joined as new investors, while Founders Fund and Lux Capital participated as existing backers.

Mach Industries, a three-year-old defense tech startup, raised a $300 million Series C at a $1.8 billion valuation. The round was led by Infinite Capital and Ribbit Capital, with backing from Bedrock Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Khosla Ventures. Molfar Defence Technologies. a Polish-Ukrainian defense startup developing anti-drone radar systems. closed the first tranche of its €2 million funding round. with Swedish investor Front Ventures committing €1.5 million.

In Africa, Spiro raised $215 million in a round that pushed its valuation close to $1 billion, Bloomberg reported.

Robotaxis and autonomous driving kept threading through the week too. Avride CEO Dmitry Polishchuk shared stats on LinkedIn: the autonomous vehicle startup has completed 60. 000 trips for Uber riders in Dallas since launching in December. Avride’s fleet includes test cars and Uber robotaxis. and the reporting says more than 1.3 million miles have been driven. with a million of those miles covered in the first five months of 2026.

Lectric eBikes launched its third brand in six months, an initiative the company has sunk about $10 million into. Uber’s annual Lost & Found Index also featured a broader look at riders and. this year. a list of items left in robotaxis that are available via the Uber app. The write-up connects that curiosity to Uber’s business focus in autonomous vehicles. adding that Uber is planning to put 500 data-collection vehicles on the road this year as part of its new AV Labs division.

Waymo brought two separate items to the mix: one of its robotaxis was used in a burglary. and the case sheds light on how Waymo handles rider footage. Alphabet-owned Waymo also announced a deal with B2U to use the batteries from its retired all-electric robotaxis to support electricity grids in California and Texas.

In venture capital, Woven Capital, Toyota’s growth fund, promoted Jarek Khoilian and Manas Punhani as principals, with a reminder that Woven Capital launched its $800 million fund II in September 2025.

And for anyone watching EVs one purchase at a time. Subaru’s changes to its Solterra offered a reminder that progress can also look incremental. De Chant spent a week with a pearl-white 2026 Subaru Solterra premium trim model that starts at $38,495. The reporting notes that a friend’s Ring camera identified the Solterra as a mini golf cart. but the point of the visit was the claim that the 2026 model has “gotten better”—including updates meant to improve power. range. and usability.

The front and rear motors have been updated. along with a new controller that improves power distribution and control. together producing improved 233 horsepower. The XT trim pushes it up to 388 hp. The Solterra also now includes an integrated NACS charging port. Range has improved to an EPA-estimated 288 miles. The reporting highlights that Subaru increased the battery capacity by only 2 kWh while managing to increase range by more than 50 miles. and adds a preconditioning setting designed to prepare the battery for a charge to improve charging time.

Inside. Subaru added a 14-inch touchscreen with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto and added wireless 15 W smartphone chargers for standard models. The Solterra does not offer true one-pedal driving. Instead. it has paddles on the back of the steering wheel that let drivers increase regenerative braking if they want—yet it won’t bring the vehicle to a complete stop like many one-pedal EVs.

The through-line across these stories is that mobility is accelerating on multiple fronts at once: GM is trying to reduce the cost and timing friction of EV production with $900 million in battery development and AI-assisted faster vehicle development. Elsewhere. financing documents hint at how capital moves may reshape the competitive field. while startups keep raising money and deploying autonomous technology into everyday routes.

GM LMR batteries EV battery development Battery Cell Development Center Kurt Kelty AI in automotive Sterling Anderson Jason Fischer Chevrolet Silverado EV SpaceX IPO Carvana Slate Auto robotaxis Waymo batteries Subaru Solterra 2026