General Motors is setting up a $4.5 billion safety fund designed to address potential future disruptions to supplies for critical parts.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the fund will be set up as a financing agreement that pre-funds the purchase of essential parts. The money would also provide suppliers with the capital they need to stockpile parts, by having supply chain management firm Procura receive funding through a bank syndicate, and then use that cash to prepay suppliers on GM's behalf. Those suppliers would then produce and set aside inventory for General Motors to use down the line.

“Our industry has experienced significant supply chain disruptions in the past for various reasons, and it’s safe to assume they will happen in the future,” GM said in a statement. “This program will help ensure that we are prepared for multiple scenarios.”

GM noted that its hope is to be able to have a strong supply of production components on hand in the event of everything from cyberattack outages, to demand surges stemming from natural disasters.

The move comes in response to a series of disruptions over the last year that slowed production across the world's biggest automakers. In October 2025, Ford was forced to pause production for five truck models after a factory fire took a crucial aluminum supplier offline. Trump administration tariffs last year on foreign vehicles and parts also cost the industry more than $12 billion in losses in a matter of months.