Silicon Valley

General Motors opens Silicon Valley office

NBC Universal, Inc.

A company that's more than 100 years old is now coming to Silicon Valley to act like a startup.

General Motors (GM) has opened a 50,000-square-foot facility in the Bay Area because its newest cars are all about tech and going electric.

"We recognized we needed to grow our base here to really be able to move as quickly as we want to move," GM CEO Mary Barra said.

Barra made the trip from Detroit to Mountain View to open the office, saying local talent is needed when building connected, clean cars.

GM is in the process of replacing gas with electricity.

"We think there's a huge opportunity in the software and services space as well as improving the profitability of EVs as we continue to work on battery technology," Barra said.

Also going electric is the Oakland Unified School District.

On Wednesday, the district announced that all of its buses are now electric vehicles, using electricity and then sending it back to the grid after school.

"When these buses are not used in transportation, which also happens to be the peak demand for energy in the evenings and summers, these buses will be plugged into our platform to provide energy back to the grid," Zumi CEO Ritu Narayan said.

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