Self-driving car business Cruise and its parent company, General Motors (GM), have entered into an agreement with Microsoft that will see the tech giant join GM, Honda, and other investors in a combined equity investment of more than $2bn (£1.4bn) in Cruise. The investment will bring Cruise’s post-money valuation to $30bn.

Through the partnership, Cruise will leverage Microsoft’s Azure cloud computing platform to commercialise its autonomous vehicle solutions at scale. Microsoft will benefit from Cruise’s industry expertise to drive its own product innovation and to continue serving other transportation companies around the world.

“Our mission to bring safer, better, and more affordable transportation to everyone isn’t just a tech race – it’s also a trust race,” said Dan Ammann, Cruise CEO. “Microsoft, as the gold standard in the trustworthy democratisation of technology, will be a force multiplier for us as we commercialise our fleet of self-driving, all-electric, shared vehicles.”  

The GM corporation will also work with Microsoft to drive digitisation initiatives and explore opportunities to streamline its operations.

“Advances in digital technology are redefining every aspect of our work and life, including how we move people and goods,” said Satya Nadella, Microsoft CEO. “As Cruise and GMs preferred cloud, we will apply the power of Azure to help them scale and make autonomous transportation mainstream.”