In recent months, Microsoft has formed cloud-centric partnerships with a variety of different firms, including Standard Chartered, Mastercard, PepsiCo, and more. Today, the tech giant has announced that it is teaming up with Cruise and General Motors (GM) to help commercialize the former"s self-driving vehicles. This is not the first time the Redmond firm has aimed to accelerate the development of self-driving tech through different collaborations.
As part of this team-up, Cruise has chosen Azure as its preferred cloud provider, with GM also leveraging it as its preferred public cloud provider. Cruise is hoping that the increased cloud computing capabilities on offer will help make the process of commercializing its unique autonomous vehicle solutions at scale more efficient. On the other end, Microsoft will be looking to enhance its product innovation by availing Cruise"s industry expertise.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella commented on this collaboration in the following way:
"Advances in digital technology are redefining every aspect of our work and life, including how we move people and goods. As Cruise and GM"s preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream."
In addition to this, Microsoft, GM, Honda, and institutional investors are also going to be making a combined equity investment in Cruise, standing at more than $2 billion, and pushing the post-money valuation of the self-driving car service to $30 billion.