(Reuters) – Carmaker Cruise and majority shareholder General Motors Co said on Tuesday they would 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, bringing Cruise’s post-cash valuation to $ 30 billion.
Cruise will use Azure, Microsoft’s cloud computing platform, for its autonomous vehicles.
“As Cruise and GM’s preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation the mainstream,” said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a statement.
GM will work with Microsoft to accelerate the automaker’s digitization initiatives, including artificial intelligence, and explore opportunities to streamline operations in digital supply chains and bring new mobility services to customers more quickly.
Reporting by Sanjana Shivdas in Bengaluru; Editing by Amy Caren Daniel