GE Vernova commits $50 million to MIT as energy company celebrates its first year
at big tech firms and other blue-chip companies.
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Unlike GE's tenure in Boston,
which ultimately ended in the company breaking apart, GE Vernova's emergence in Cambridge is paying off so far, Strazik said in an interview
.
(The headquarters itself is relatively modest, with about 100 of the 75,000-person global workforce based there.) GE Vernova essentially doubled its cash balance in the past year, to $8 billion. And the company
has minimal debt — unlike its former parent. That gives GE Vernova more leeway to invest in acquisitions and university partnerships.
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'It's what gives us the opportunity now to make the announcement ... with MIT, to invest into an alliance with them,' Strazik said. 'This is really foundational, and yes, it's helpful that we share the same neighborhood, but it's more than that. There's shared values here, and, I would say, practical ambition that we're incredibly motivated to work with them on.'
Strazik reached out to MIT chief strategy officer Anantha Chandrakasan in 2023 to start figuring out ways to better connect GE Vernova with the university, its professors, and its students. The $50 million alliance is an outgrowth of those discussions. MIT has other partnerships with big companies, such as IBM and Takeda, but this one with GE Vernova is one of the largest in terms of the funding levels, he said.
'A great amount of innovation happens in academia. We have a longer view into the future,' Chandraksan said of the GE Vernova partnership. '[While] they have the ability to get products out quickly to scale up, to manufacture, we have the ability to think past the short-term. ... It's super smart of them to surround themselves with this incredible talent in academia. That will allow us to make the kind of breakthroughs that will keep US competitiveness at its peak.'
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