TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search resultsMicrosoft invests in Grab as ride hailer adopts Azure platform
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Grab CEO and co-founder Anthony Tan (center), HappyFresh CEO Guillem Segarra (third left) and Grab head of product Jerald Singh (second right) pose together with Grab employees during the launch of its new ‘superapp’ GrabPlatform in Singapore on Tuesday (10/7). (JP/Rachmadea Aisyah)
M
icrosoft Corp.will invest an unspecified amount in Grab as the ride-hailing giant adopts the US company’s Azure as its preferred platform for cloud services.
Under the five-year deal, the companies will collaborate on technologies including big data, artificial intelligence and connected car platforms. Grab counts Amazon Web Services among its existing cloud suppliers and has worked in the past with major shareholder Didi Chuxing to adopt new technologies.
Microsoft is trying to catch up with Amazon.com Inc. in winning large business customers for Azure, which runs cloud computing applications and stores data. Grab, which operates in eight different countries, wants the US company’s natural language processing capabilities to provide real-time translations for passengers and their drivers.
“We see so many companies that use tech in new, unique ways to build businesses in the region,” Peggy Johnson, Microsoft’s executive vice president of business development, said in a joint interview with Grab President Ming Maa. “Together, we can produce a number of new, exciting services we may not even visualize yet.”
The Microsoft investment is part of a targeted $3 billion of funding that Singapore-based Grab expects to raise by the end of the year, Maa said. They declined to specify the size of the investment.
