[perardi]

It's baffling. Like you said, GM will use its own technology. So they bought 11% of Nikola for…edgy CEO shitposting on Twitter?

GM can definitely build a good electric vehicle. They cannot seem to market a good electric vehicle—see Chevrolet Bolt sales, and then ask a random person if they know what a Bolt is. So the Nikola investment is the equivalent of buying a hip design studio?

[stu2b50]

They didn't buy any stock. GM gets 11% in return for supplying and R&D for the Nikola "car". But they didn't spend any cash, and in fact get cash because they can reimburse 700M.

In the worst case, they were paid to do their own R&D.

Nikola basically bribed GM with a insane deal so they can say they have a GM partnership.

[foobarian]

Even better, remember the EV1?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Motors_EV1

[tyingq]

Nikola did have a pleasing exterior design for the pickup and a solid email list of potential buyers. Not worth a fortune, but something.