General Motors just posted a 151% jump in third-quarter net income to $3.3 billion—and promptly authorized $20 billion in share buybacks to reward Wall Street while Main Street drowns in 9% HELOC rates and grocery sticker shock.
The numbers tell the story of a system working exactly as designed. GM sold fewer vehicles overall than a year ago, according to the Detroit Free Press, but raked in far more profit anyway. How? What CEO Mary Barra called "spending discipline" and "strong pricing strategies"—which in plain English means charging more and paying less. The automaker's full-size pickups had their best third quarter ever, proving Americans still need trucks for work while GM extracts maximum margin from that need.
Then there's the buyback bonfire. GM repurchased $2.5 billion of its own stock in Q3 alone, retiring 29 million shares, and distributed another $200 million in dividends. The new $20 billion multiyear authorization Barra announced signals that the share cannibalization is just getting started. Barra told shareholders the move "further demonstrates our board's commitment to creating even greater shareholder value." No mention of creating value for the workers building those trucks or the customers paying record prices for them.
The profit surge also masks the ongoing EV disaster that taxpayers helped fund. GM has recorded $11.2 billion in EV-related charges since restructuring its electric vehicle operations starting in the second half of 2025. Of that, $7.4 billion hit cash earnings, and GM has paid out $4.6 billion so far—with another $1 billion expected next quarter and the rest in 2027. The Free Press reported that the loss of the federal EV tax credit in 2025 cratered the smaller-than-expected electric vehicle market. When the subsidy dried up, consumer demand evaporated. Imagine that.
Now GM is pivoting to hybrids—the technology the industry and regulators dismissed for years while pouring billions into EVs nobody wanted at prices nobody could afford. Barra told investors that hybrids popular in the U.S. are "in segments in which GM is not competing, such as compact cars and minivans," but promised hybrids "in multiple segments" without additional capital expenditure. Translation: GM is late to a market it ignored while chasing green mandates, and now it's playing catch-up on the cheap.
CNBC framed the story around Wall Street's expectations—whether GM would raise or narrow its 2026 guidance, and what analysts think about 2027. JPMorgan analyst Rajat Gupta summed up the institutional perspective: investors care about "2027 revisions," not current results. The financial class is already looking past the working-class sticker price to the next earnings multiple.
GM narrowed its full-year pretax estimates for the third time in 2026, and CNBC noted Wall Street is mixed on whether the automaker will raise guidance amid slowing sales and rising commodity costs. But the share buyback machine keeps running regardless.
The open question: how long can a company keep selling fewer vehicles at higher prices, burning cash on buybacks, and writing off billions in failed green pivots before the bill comes due—and who will pay it when it does?
