GM to switch listing from NYSE to Nasdaq as it accelerates AI push

General Motors plans to shift its market listing from the New York Stock Exchange to the Nasdaq, as it accelerates its development of autonomous vehicles and AI-powered manufacturing.

The transfer of GM’s listing further cements Nasdaq as the destination exchange for tech-focused companies, after also snagging the IPOs of Anthropic and SpaceX this year.

The Detroit-based auto giant last week outlined plans to produce a new generation of electric and “software-defined” vehicles using large data sets and machine learning to speed up development cycles.

“GM’s customer-focused, technology-driven strategy is creating value for our stockholders, making Nasdaq a natural home for our listing as we grow,” said Paul Jacobson, the company’s chief financial officer, in a statement on Tuesday.

It expects to trade on the NYSE until the market close on November 16 and to begin trading its common stock on the Nasdaq under the same symbol the following day.

Sterling Anderson, a Tesla veteran recruited by chief executive Mary Barra last year to oversee GM’s tech push, told the FˇT last week that the autonomous vehicles the company was developing would help it to leapfrog global rivals, including from China.

Anderson, who also founded autonomous driving start-up Aurora Innovation and is hotly tipped to succeed Barra as chief executive, is leading efforts to slash its product development cycle, which is currently four to five years, in half with help from data gathered by the company’s vast manufacturing operation.

Sales derived from software subscriptions are becoming an increasingly important contributor to auto manufacturers’ revenues.

GM last week reported more than $800mn in third-quarter revenue from its OnStar subscription service, up 15 per cent on the same period last year, and a 60 per cent year-on-year rise in revenue from its SuperCruise driver-assistance programme.

Anderson’s vision is also an example of US corporate giants placing large bets on the promise of “physical AI”, namely the application of artificial intelligence to large-scale manufacturing.

Nvidia founder Jensen Huang has pursued a series of partnerships with robotics and industrial companies, while the merging of the digital and physical realms also underpins Elon Musk’s transformation of Tesla and its mooted merger with SpaceX.

General Motors, the top-selling auto company in the US, first listed on the NYSE, re-listing in 2010 following its bankruptcy in the aftermath of the global financial crisis. It has a market cap of $64bn, compared with Tesla’s $1.55tn. GM shares rose 4 per cent in early morning trading.

Its move deals a further blow to the prestige of the NYSE, which has in recent years ceded market share to Nasdaq and new exchanges in Texas as it battles to maintain its reputation as the home of America’s largest blue-chip companies.

Walmart last year became the largest company by market capitalisation to switch its listing from NYSE to the Nasdaq, with the retailer citing its “strong alignment” with Nasdaq’s “technology-forward approach”. The NYSE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Nasdaq this year enacted sweeping changes to its flagship Nasdaq 100, creating a 15-day fast-track route into the index for megacap IPO candidates, which had previously had to wait up to a year. Joining the Nasdaq 100 allows companies to absorb billions of dollars in investment from passive funds.

Nasdaq also removed a condition that had required at least 10 per cent of a company’s shares to be on offer to the public.

Although critics suggest that fast-tracking newly public companies on to widely followed indices might distort post-IPO price discovery, Nasdaq’s rule changes appear to have paid off.

SpaceX in June opted to list on Nasdaq for the biggest initial public offering on record. AI start-up Anthropic is set to list on the tech-heavy exchange later this year.