Government sells remaining stake in GM The U.S. government no longer owns part of General Motors. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew says the government sold its remaining shares in the automaker on Tuesday. The government lost $10.5 billion on its bailout of GM. But Lew says the rescue was necessary to save 1 million jobs and stop the American auto industry from collapsing. The government got 912 million GM shares, or 60.8 percent of the company, in exchange for a $49.5 billion bailout during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. It recovered $39 billion of the money.