Under the agreement, GM will make an equity investment of $650 million in Lithium Americas. Lithium carbonate from Thacker Pass will be used in GM's proprietary Ultium battery cell.
U.S.-listed shares of Lithium Americas rose over 9% in premarket trade.
The investment, which will be split into two tranches, comes after a U.S. judge said earlier this month she would rule "in the next couple of months" on whether former President Donald Trump erred in 2021 when he approved Lithium Americas' Thacker Pass mining project in northern Nevada.
The funds for the first tranche will be held in escrow until certain conditions are met, including the outcome of the Record of Decision ruling currently pending in the U.S. District Court.
Production at Thacker Pass, which is expected to create 1,000 jobs in construction and 500 in operations, is projected to begin in the second half of 2026, the companies said in a statement.
Global demand for lithium, which is a key material in lithium-ion batteries, is likely to hit 3.7 million tonnes by 2030.
(Reporting by Nathan Gomes in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)
