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Maruti Suzuki hits the gas on financing with SMFG India Credit tieup
MUMBAI: Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) has inked a new deal that could supercharge its light commercial vehicle sales. The company has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with SMFG India Credit (SMICC) to provide tailored auto retail finance options for buyers of its Super Carry and Eeco Cargo models.
This new alliance is designed to give a leg-up to fleet owners and small businesses by offering flexible, tech-savvy financing solutions. With SMICC’s reach and Maruti’s dealer network firing on all cylinders, customers can now expect an end-to-end credit experience that’s fast, fuss-free and fully digital.
Present at the signing were MSIL senior executive officers for marketing and sales, Partho Banerjee and Nobutaka Suzuki, along with vice-president Vishal Sharma. SMICC was represented by chief operating officer Swaminathan Subramanian, chief business officer Ajay Pareek, and Takamitsu Kajii, head of planning and alignment.
“At Maruti Suzuki, customer delight remains to be our top priority. Our partnership with SMFG India Credit adds to our continuous efforts in aiding customers with easy, flexible, and personalised financing options for Super Carry and Eeco Cargo. The Super Carry has a special place in the hearts of fleet owners and drivers with its exceptional load carrying capacity & power, while the Eeco Cargo’s versatile combination of comfort and utility makes it a preferred choice. By leveraging SMFG India’s robust and wide network, customers can expect seamless, tech-driven, end-to-end financing experiences,” said Partho Banerjee.
Ajay Pareek added, “We are excited to offer top-class credit solutions to Maruti Suzuki customers as one of their retail vehicle financing partners. This collaboration aligns with our aim of becoming the preferred lending partner of choice for millions of Indians. Our tailor-made product offerings extend beyond auto retail financing and we are well poised to empower every Indian to achieve financial freedom, through easy and accessible loans. Keeping this as one of the cornerstones for progress, we are focused on partnering with top OEMs across key sectors. We are thrilled to ink this partnership with Maruti Suzuki and look forward to jointly serving their customers across the country.”
With the commercial vehicle market picking up pace, this move could help Maruti Suzuki stay ahead of the curve and load up on volumes—one financed vehicle at a time.
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Google nears Nvidia in race for world’s most valuable company
Market cap gap narrows as Google hits $4.65 trillion, Nvidia at $4.86 trillion.
MUMBAI: In the AI gold rush, even the giants are sprinting and Google is suddenly gaining ground. Google is rapidly closing in on Nvidia in the race to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, with the gap between the two narrowing sharply amid diverging stock momentum. The tech giant’s market capitalisation has surged to around $4.65 trillion, following a more than 140 per cent rise in its share price over the past year.
That rally has added over $2.6 trillion in value in just 12 months, including nearly $900 billion since January alone. Its stock recently hovered at $381.80, slipping marginally by 0.04 per cent, but still reflecting strong upward momentum.
Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to hold the top spot with a valuation of approximately $4.86 trillion. The chipmaker crossed the $5 trillion milestone in October last year and peaked at $5.27 trillion on 27 April. However, its shares have largely plateaued over the past six months, rising just 0.2 per cent recently to $199.99.
The contrast in trajectories is striking. While Nvidia has seen relatively flat movement, Google has gained over 36 per cent in the same six-month period. Barron’s estimates suggest that if current trends hold, the valuation gap could shrink to as little as $190 million by the time Nvidia reports its first-quarter earnings on 20 May.
Daily momentum paints a similar picture. Nvidia recorded average daily gains of about 0.66 per cent last month, compared to Google’s stronger 1.42 per cent, an edge that could prove decisive in the short term.
Driving Google’s resurgence is its aggressive push into artificial intelligence across its ecosystem, from search and YouTube to cloud computing. The company has already invested $144 billion in capital expenditure over the past two years and plans to deploy a further $490 billion over the next two.
Its cloud division is also gathering pace. Google Cloud reported an order backlog of nearly $220 billion in the latest quarter, with total backlog touching a record $462 billion, around half of which is expected to be realised within two years. The company’s entry into chip sales is also beginning to factor into its growth narrative.
The last time Google briefly topped the S&P 500 by market value was in February 2016, when it edged past Apple for just two days. This time, the stakes and the numbers are far higher.
At the heart of the contest lies a single force: artificial intelligence. As both companies pour billions into infrastructure, chips and platforms, the leaderboard is no longer just about size, it is about who can scale the future faster.
