GM, Honda and other institutional investors have also put more capital into Cruise as the autonomous vehicle company inches closer to commercializing its technology. While Microsoft's capital is important, the partnership might provide equal and longer-term value for Cruise, at least in the two companies' views. Under the long-term strategic partnership, Cruise will use Azure, Microsoft's cloud and edge computing platform, for its yet-to-be launched autonomous vehicle ride-hailing service. Any autonomous vehicle company aiming to commercialize — meaning bring their tech to the public at scale — needs a robust cloud computing platform.