Vodafone and Microsoft have lifted the covers on a new 10-year strategic partnership that will see them jointly aim to deliver scaled digital platforms to more than 300 million businesses, public sector organizations and consumers across Europe and Africa.
As part of the deal, Vodafone has committed to a $1.5 billion investment in cloud and customer-centric AI services over the next decade with Microsoft.
The two-way relationship also makes Microsoft “intend to[ing]” to invest an undisclosed sum in Vodafone's IoT connectivity platform, which will become its own standalone business in April.
Microsoft and Vodafone want to accelerate digital transformation
Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO, said: “This unique strategic partnership with Microsoft will accelerate the digital transformation of our business customers, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, and improve the quality of customer experience for consumers.”
The alliance aims to improve Vodafone's customer experience, develop digital and financial services for businesses and renew the company's global data center cloud strategy.
Vodafone also hopes to expand its platform and ultimately connect more devices, vehicles and machines.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella added: “This next generation of AI will unlock enormous new opportunities for every organization and every industry in the world.”
The companies have identified five key areas of collaboration, starting with Vodafone's digital assistant, TOBi, which will be powered by generative AI powered by Microsoft Azure OpenAI.
Closer connections will also be forged between Vodafone and Microsoft in terms of IoT, and Vodafone has shared plans to modernize its data centers on Microsoft Azure.
In addition, the two technology titans hope to help SMEs that use their services to grow, with special attention to the African continent, where digital literacy, skills improvement and youth outreach programs will be implemented.
