What's going on?

American automaker Ford warned on Thursday that its profits in the current quarter would be lower than it had previously forecasted, partly because of its big new investments in self-driving cars.

What does this mean?

Ford said on Thursday that �investments in emerging opportunities� are a big reason for its lower profit guidance. It also noted that its earnings in 2017 would be slightly dented by lower sales and higher commodity prices, but Thursday�s big news was largely about the size of those �investments� � which relate to Ford�s efforts to develop autonomous cars.

Why should I care?

The bigger picture: Big corporates are on the hunt to buy startups.

Large companies in America have been looking to cash in on the growing appetite for self-driving cars, a dream from the Jetsons era that now seems just within reach. Even Intel, which has never been a major player in the auto industry, purchased Mobileye for $15.3 billion earlier this month so it could get its hands on the chips needed to build self-driving cars. For its part, Ford has spent $1 billion to essentially found its own startup focused on�self-driving cars (headed up by former employees from Uber and Google).

For the stock: Ford wants to tackle autonomous driving itself � and that�s expensive. (tweet this)

Other automakers are partnering with Silicon Valley to co-develop autonomous driving (e.g. Fiat and Google), but Ford�s got a mind to do all the heavy lifting itself. Of course, that�s a pretty expensive proposition. If it works, it could pay off in a big way (since Ford would essentially own its own technology). But the risk is that Ford will end up spending a lot more money without seeing the same success as its competitors, who by partnering up are benefitting from the shared expertise of two different industries (tech and auto).