Business
Inside GM’s new world headquarters: Modernized midcentury designs with artifacts, surprises from the American icon
A 1963 Chevrolet K20 pickup truck and a new Chevrolet Silverado EV sit outside General Motors’ new world headquarters on Jan. 6, 2026 in Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
DETROIT – Outside General Motors‘ new world headquarters, between the 12-story building and the city’s first new skyscraper in more than 30 years, sit two red Chevrolet pickup trucks.
One is a 1963 Chevrolet K20. The other is a new Silverado EV. The trucks, while part of a temporary holiday display, are symbolic of what’s inside the new global offices for the Detroit automaker: its past and present, woven together.
GM is occupying four of six office floors of the building and has filled them with artifacts, design nods and “Easter eggs” tied to the Detroit automaker’s history.
They range from a blueprint of GM’s iconic design dome and an early map of its nearby proving grounds to an interior wallpaper of 300 patented technologies and a decorative wall of cassette tapes with songs featuring the automaker’s brands as well playful references to executive stalwarts such as CEO Mary Barra and President Mark Reuss.
One of the centerpiece objects of GM’s new headquarters is the McCormick Speed Form, an aerodynamic wind-tunnel model developed at the Warren Technical Center.
Courtesy: GM
“Leadership asked when we were helping design the space to bring in some Easter eggs and details to represent who we are at GM, you know, honoring our culture and our history and our innovation,” Rebecca Waldmeir, GM industrial design architecture and experience manager, told CNBC during a tour of the new headquarters.
Other surprises include references to relevant Detroit streets, design influences from GM’s famed design campus in suburban Detroit and artwork and sculptures of its products.
Aside from the aesthetics, GM officials say the new offices will assist with collaboration and are more relevant to how the company expects its employees to work in a post-pandemic world. It will house executive offices and other corporate functions such as marketing, legal and finance.
“A headquarters really should be, at some level, a beacon for the culture of the company,” said David Massaron, GM vice president of infrastructure and corporate citizenship. “When you come in here, it should help people understand who we want to be.”
A wall inside GM’s new Detroit headquarters includes cassette tape cases featuring songs referencing the automaker’s brands and vehicles as well as custom ones featuring GM executives such as CEO Mary Barra and President Mark Reuss.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
From fortress to functionality
The new headquarters marks a significant square-foot reduction for the automaker’s corporate office — from a towering complex called the Renaissance Center along the city’s riverfront to just four floors, roughly 200,000 square feet, in the new building.
GM’s new HQ is less than a mile from the RenCen, as it’s commonly called, which has been a symbol for the city since, ironically, Ford Motor built the complex but decided not to make it its headquarters in the 1970s. GM purchased the building in 1996 as its third headquarters, all of which have been in the Motor City.
The RenCen is Detroit’s fortress, a 5.6-million-square-foot complex complete with a more-than-700-foot center tower surrounded by four 500-foot towers and two smaller adjacent ones.
GM’s new headquarters at the Hudson’s Detroit development in the city’s downtown.
Courtesy: GM
The complex is infamously difficult to get in and out of and to navigate. For much of its existence, it was surrounded by concrete barriers before a redesign around the turn of the millennium.
It has long been something of a physical permutation of GM’s historically siloed culture, which Barra has made a priority to change during her roughly 11-year tenure as CEO.
“The RenCen was designed in a different era, in a pre-Covid era where everybody went to work five days a week, everybody went to their desk,” Massaron said. “Particularly, in a post-pandemic world, you need office space that people want to come to, because we have options.”
GM’s roughly 50,000 U.S. salaried employees are currently required to work in-office Tuesday through Thursday, but the rules are more flexible than before regarding location and remote working.
The Renaissance Center (complex of skyscrapers with the Chrevrolet sign) by the Detroit River.
Roberto Machado Noa | Lightrocket | Getty Images
Most of the company’s new executive offices on the top floor of the building will be open for executives to use as they please, Massaron said. Only four of the offices will be permanently assigned to top GM executives, such as Barra and Reuss, he said.
GM declined to disclose how many employees are expected to regularly work at the new headquarters, saying foot traffic will fluctuate based on priorities and workflows. The company also declined to disclose financial details of its 15-year lease at the new headquarters.
The building complex, known as Hudson’s Detroit, is owned by a real estate company of Rocket Companies chairman and billionaire Dan Gilbert, who has been purchasing and renovating properties in Detroit for more than a decade.
Showroom, pickleball
Aside from the office areas and the executive floor, which all overlook an open atrium, GM also plans to open a semi-public space to display products and host events on the first floor of the building.
Other amenities include social gathering areas and lounges, food and beverage services and a pickleball court and recreation area.
A common area outside of the executive offices of GM’s new headquarters in downtown Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
GM’s new headquarters, which remains under construction, comes months after Ford christened a new 2.1-million-square-foot global HQ and product design and development center in nearby Dearborn, Michigan.
Ford’s new facility includes offices, design and industrial operations and a host of amenities such as a 160,000-square-foot dining area with eight “kitchen concepts,” multiple courtyards and other upgrades.
The notable difference in the size between GM’s and Ford’s new headquarters comes down to location, headcount and the automakers’ portfolios of offices and operations throughout the region.
A pickleball court and seating area inside the building that includes GM’s new headquarters in Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
GM, for example, has a vast technology and design center that occupies 710 acres in nearby Warren, Michigan. That campus houses more than 24,000 employees.
Massaron said GM didn’t feel it needed to create “a city within a city” for its new headquarters, because it’s actually “a building within a city.”
Here’s a look inside GM’s new world headquarters:
The entry of the executive floor inside GM’s new global headquarters in Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
The executive hallway of GM’s new headquarters in Detroit.
Courtesy: GM
One of a dozen or so executive offices inside GM’s new headquarters in downtown Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
One of a dozen or so executive offices inside GM’s new headquarters in downtown Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
The interior design draws inspiration from Eero Saarinen’s iconic GM Global Technical Center, incorporating golden
metallic finishes, wood feature walls, warm recessed lighting and a blend of clean linear geometries with subtle
curves.
Courtesy: GM
Patent wall graphics highlight 300 of more than 49,000
patents granted since the company’s founding in 1911.
Courtesy: GM
A wall of cassette tapes celebrates GM’s broad cultural impact, nodding to the more than 78,000 songs that
reference GM brands and vehicles.
Courtesy: GM
A model of the Chevrolet Corvette CX concept hangs on the wall outside the executive boardroom of GM’s new headquarters.
Courtesy: GM
The executive boardroom inside GM’s new headquarters in Detroit.
Courtesy: GM
Inside the common atrium area of GM’s new global headquarters in Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
A coffee shop and cafe inside the atrium area of GM’s new global headquarters in Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
A common lounge area near the atrium of the building that houses GM’s new headquarters in Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
Three-dimensional sound-wave art profiles feature engine and EV tones from notable GM vehicles across
performance, EV and ICE categories, transforming acoustic engineering into sculptural expression.
Courtesy: GM
A statue of GM’s “Cadillac Goddess” sits on a table inside the executive floor of its new headquarters in Detroit.
Michael Wayland | CNBC
Business
LSEG boosts returns for shareholders amid activist investor pressure
The London Stock Exchange Group has unveiled plans for a £3 billion share buyback amid pressure from an activist investor and as artificial intelligence fears have hammered the stock.
LSEG said it would follow £2.1 billion in buybacks made last year with another £3 billion by February next year, on top of a hike in dividend payouts.
Details of the pledge to step up returns for investors came as it reported underlying operating profits of £3.51 billion for 2025, up 10.8% or 14.7% higher on a constant currency basis.
On a bottom line basis, pre-tax profits jumped 56.5% to £1.97 billion for 2025.
Shares in the group rose as much as 5% in Thursday morning trading, in a welcome increase after the stock has been battered in recent weeks by global investor concerns over the impact of AI on its firm and data companies more widely.
Shares in the firm, which makes a significant chunk of its earnings from selling access to markets data, have slumped by nearly a third in the past year.
Activist investor Elliott Management has also built up a stake in the firm earlier this month and has reportedly been pushing for more share buybacks as it has held talks with LSEG bosses.
In the face of the recent shares slump, chief executive David Schwimmer said recent results showed “another year of very strong financial performance”.
He said: “In the fourth quarter alone, major financial institutions signed long-term contracts worth £1.9 billion to access our leading data and workflow.”
“With our LSEG Everywhere data strategy, we are positioning ourselves as the partner of choice for licensed, trusted data as the use of AI in decision-making scales – and we are seeing very positive signs of adoption,” he added.
It outlined new performance guidance for 2027 to 2029, with aims to deliver “mid to high single digit” growth in total income and further increase profitability.
Despite taking a significant stake in LSEG, the Financial Times newspaper reported earlier this week that Elliott has made assurances to the UK government over its intentions for LSEG as speculation mounted it would look to push for a break-up of the firm or for it to switch its listing to New York.
Business
Rolls-Royce makes £1 billion more profit after major defence orders
Rolls-Royce has revealed its annual profit surged by £1 billion and upgraded its outlook for the years ahead, following major military aircraft orders and soaring demand for powering data centres.
The engineering giant said its business divisions were in a good place to benefit from “key global trends” over the coming years.
It reported an underlying operating profit of £3.5 billion for 2025, a jump of 40% from the £2.5 billion made the prior year.
Underlying revenues surpassed £20 billion over the year, up about a 10th on 2024.
This was driven by profit and sales growth across its civil aerospace, defence, and power businesses.
Rolls-Royce said demand for its defence products was strong and it secured major orders during 2025.
This included contracts worth more than £1.5 billion with the UK’s Ministry of Defence and the US’s Department of War for EJ200 and AE 2100 engines to power military aircraft.
New orders for the Eurofighter aircraft engines from Italy, Germany and Spain, as well as export agreements from Turkey, will drive production into the 2030s, it said.
Furthermore, Rolls-Royce said it was benefiting from growing demand for power generation, driven by data centres with revenues up by more than a third.
Rolls-Royce said it was now expecting underlying operating profits to increase to between £4.9 billion and £5.2 billion by 2028 following the strengthened financial performance in 2025.
This is significantly higher than the £3.6 billion to £3.9 billion range that it had previously been targeting.
Chief executive Tufan Erginbilgic said growth would not have been possible “before our transformation”, with the business making £600 million worth of cost savings since 2022.
“With our new capabilities and mindset, we have navigated challenges from supply chain to tariffs, and delivered a strong performance in 2025, all while we built the foundations for significant growth for years to come,” he said.
“Based on our 2026 guidance, we expect to deliver underlying operating profit within the prior mid-term guidance range two years earlier than planned.
“Beyond the mid-term we continue to see significant growth from existing businesses as well as from new business opportunities.”
Business
RBI’s Rs 25,000-Crore Switch Auction On March 2nd And Its Impact On Bond Markets, Government Debt Strategy | Explained
Last Updated:
RBI Switch Auction On March 2: The Reserve Bank of India will conduct a government securities switch auction worth Rs 25,000 crore on March 2 between 10:30 AM and 11:30 AM

In the latest exercise, all securities, having maturities in FY27, are being replaced with bonds maturing after FY32.
RBI Switch Auction On March 2: The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will conduct a government securities switch auction worth Rs 25,000 crore on March 2 between 10:30 AM and 11:30 AM, with results to be declared the same day and settlement scheduled for March 4. The move marks the third such operation this month and is aimed at smoothing India’s future debt repayment profile.
What is a switch auction?
A switch auction is a debt management tool through which the government exchanges bonds that mature soon with bonds that mature later. Instead of repaying investors in cash when near-term securities mature, the government offers them longer-dated securities. This effectively postpones repayment obligations without increasing total debt.
In the latest exercise, all securities, having maturities in FY27, are being replaced with bonds maturing after FY32, according to RBI data.
Why is RBI conducting it now?
The key trigger is the heavy redemption pressure expected in FY27, when government securities worth about Rs 5.47 lakh crore are scheduled to mature. By replacing these with bonds maturing after FY32, the authorities are spreading repayment obligations across future years. This reduces refinancing risk and prevents sudden spikes in borrowing needs.
How does it help the government?
India has already budgeted gross market borrowing of Rs 17.2 lakh crore. Large redemptions in a single year would force the government either to borrow more or use fiscal resources for repayment. Switch auctions smooth this maturity profile, making debt servicing more predictable and fiscally manageable.
What has happened so far this month?
Before this latest announcement, the RBI conducted two switch auctions in which securities worth Rs 84,804 crore were bought back and replaced. The repeated use of this tool signals a proactive debt-management strategy rather than a reactive measure.
Why markets watch switch auctions closely
Bond investors track such operations because they affect liquidity, yield curves and supply of long-term securities. Extending maturities can reduce pressure on near-term yields while increasing supply at the long end, influencing pricing across the sovereign curve.
The broader takeaway
The latest switch auction is part of a deliberate strategy to manage India’s rising debt stock more efficiently. By pushing repayments further into the future and avoiding bunching of maturities, policymakers aim to maintain stability in government borrowing costs and ensure smoother fiscal operations in coming years.
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February 26, 2026, 11:11 IST
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