https://www.newsmax.com/finance/streettalk/microsoft-gm-cruise-driverless-car/2021/01/19/id/1006252/Tuesday, 19 January 2021 01:23 PM
Microsoft is throwing the dice and betting that General Motors’ driverless car and electric vehicles technology will soon be "mainstream."
In an announcement Tuesday, the software giant said it’s teaming up with GM and its self-driving car subsidiary Cruise to speed up the commercialization of autonomous cars, and will join investors GM, Honda, and other “institutional investors” in a combined equity investment of more than $2 billion.
The giant investment brings Cruise's valuation to $30 billion — a hefty jump from its $19 billion valuation in spring of 2019, The Hill noted.
As part of the mega-deal, “Cruise will leverage Azure, Microsoft’s cloud and edge computing platform, to commercialize its unique autonomous vehicle solutions at scale.”
“Advances in digital technology are redefining every aspect of our work and life, including how we move people and goods,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said. “As Cruise and GM’s preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream.”
As part of the announcement, GM said Microsoft would also be its preferred cloud provider “to accelerate its digitization initiatives, including collaboration, storage, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities.”
The Hill noted that Cruise recently started testing its autonomous vehicles in San Francisco without a backup driver in the driver’s seat — and is working on launching a driverless ride-hailing service.
