(Reuters) – Autonomous carmaker Cruise and majority shareholder General Motors Co. said on Tuesday they will partner with Microsoft Corp. to market driverless autonomous vehicles.
Microsoft will join General Motors, Honda Motor Co. and institutional investors in a new combined capital investment of more than $ 2 billion in Cruise, which will bring Cruise’s post-money valuation to $ 30 billion.
Cruise will use Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, for its self-driving vehicles.
“As a favorite cloud of Cruise and GM, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale up and make autonomous transportation a majority,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in a statement.
GM will work with Microsoft to accelerate automotive digitization initiatives, including artificial intelligence, and explore opportunities to streamline operations across digital supply chains and deliver new mobility services to customers more quickly.
Reports from Sanjana Shivdas to Bengaluru; Edited by Amy Caren Daniel