Cruise and General Motors have entered a long-term strategic relationship with Microsoft to accelerate the commercialization of self-driving vehicles. Microsoft is joining GM, Honda and institutional investors in a combined new equity investment of more than $2 billion in Cruise, bringing the post-money valuation of Cruise to $30 billion.

To unlock the potential of cloud computing for self-driving vehicles, Cruise will leverage Azure, Microsoft’s cloud and edge computing platform, to commercialize its autonomous vehicle solutions at scale.

Our mission to bring safer, better, and more affordable transportation to everyone isn’t just a tech race—it’s also a trust race. Microsoft, as the gold standard in the trustworthy democratization of technology, will be a force multiplier for us as we commercialize our fleet of self-driving, all-electric, shared vehicles.

—Cruise CEO Dan Ammann

Microsoft, as Cruise’s preferred cloud provider, will also tap into Cruise’s deep industry expertise to enhance its customer-driven product innovation and serve transportation companies across the globe through continued investment in Azure.

In addition, GM will work with Microsoft as its preferred public cloud provider to accelerate its digitization initiatives, including collaboration, storage, artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities. GM will explore opportunities with Microsoft to streamline operations across digital supply chains, foster productivity and bring new mobility services to customers faster.

Cruise AV：Vehicle based on GM Bolt for testing Cruise AD tech

Honda announced that it will collaborate with Cruise and General Motors on self-driving vehicles for its autonomous vehicle mobility service (MaaS) business in Japan, based on the development and commercial agreements signed in October 2018.

Cruise will be sending the first of its self-driving test vehicles to Japan and start development for testing this year.

Cruise Origin

Further ahead, Honda aims to launch its MaaS (Mobility-as-a-Service) business using the Cruise Origin, a vehicle the three companies are jointly developing exclusively for autonomous vehicle mobility service businesses. Honda Mobility Solutions Co., Ltd., established in February 2020, will be the operator of such MaaS business in Japan.