Vodafone to Invest $1.5 Billion in Cloud and AI Services in Collaboration with Microsoft

Vodafone to Invest $1.5 Billion in Cloud and AI Services in Collaboration with Microsoft

(IN BRIEF) Vodafone and Microsoft have announced a 10-year strategic partnership aimed at transforming customer experiences and fostering business growth in Europe and Africa. The collaboration includes leveraging Microsoft’s generative AI to enhance customer engagement, expanding Vodafone’s IoT platform, creating innovative digital services for SMEs, and streamlining global data center operations. Vodafone will invest $1.5 billion in cloud and AI services, while Microsoft will utilize Vodafone’s connectivity services. The partnership aims to deliver highly personalized digital services while upholding ethical privacy and security standards.

(PRESS RELEASE) LONDON/ REDMOND, WA, United States, 16-Jan-2024 — /EuropaWire/ — Vodafone (LON: VOD), a British multinational leader in technology communications, and Microsoft Corp. have unveiled a game-changing 10-year strategic partnership aimed at enhancing digital services for over 300 million consumers, businesses, and public sector organizations across Europe and Africa. The collaboration will see Vodafone harness Microsoft’s generative AI to revolutionize the customer experience, strengthen its IoT connectivity platform, develop innovative digital and financial services for SMEs, and streamline its global data center cloud strategy. Vodafone’s $1.5 billion investment in cloud and AI services, in conjunction with Microsoft, will drive this transformative journey. Microsoft will also utilize Vodafone’s fixed and mobile connectivity services.

As part of the partnership, Microsoft will invest in Vodafone’s managed IoT connectivity platform, set to become an independent business entity by April 2024. This initiative aims to attract new partners and customers, expanding the platform’s reach across various devices, vehicles, and machinery. The digital services co-created by Vodafone and Microsoft will leverage cutting-edge generative AI technology to deliver highly personalized customer experiences while adhering to ethical privacy and security standards.

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group Chief Executive, expressed, “Today, Vodafone has made a bold commitment to the digital future of Europe and Africa. This unique strategic partnership with Microsoft will accelerate the digital transformation of our business customers, particularly small and medium-sized companies, and step up the quality of customer experience for consumers.”

Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO of Microsoft, stated, “This new generation of AI will unlock massive new opportunities for every organization and every industry around the world. We are delighted that together with Vodafone, we will apply the latest cloud and AI technology to enhance the customer experience of hundreds of millions of people and businesses across Africa and Europe, build new products and services, and accelerate the company’s transition to the cloud.”

The partnership will focus on five key areas of collaboration:

1. Generative AI: Leveraging Microsoft Azure OpenAI to deliver real-time, hyper-personalized customer experiences, including the enhancement of Vodafone’s digital assistant TOBi and transforming employee productivity with Microsoft Copilot.

2. Scaling IoT: Investing in Vodafone’s standalone global IoT-managed connectivity platform, while Vodafone joins the Azure ecosystem to provide open API access to the IoT platform for developers and third-party communities.

3. Africa Digital Acceleration: Expanding M-Pesa, Africa’s largest financial technology platform, on Azure to launch new cloud-native applications, alongside a program targeting 100 million consumers and 1 million SMEs across Africa to enhance digital literacy, skills, and outreach.

4. Enterprise Growth: Extending Vodafone’s distribution of Microsoft services, including Azure, security solutions, and Microsoft Teams Phone Mobile, to support Europe’s SMEs as part of Vodafone’s strategy to become Europe’s leading business platform.

5. Cloud Transformation: Modernizing Vodafone’s data centers on Microsoft Azure to improve responsiveness to customers, reduce operational costs, and align with sustainable business strategies.

This transformative partnership underscores a shared commitment to driving innovation, improving customer experiences, and fueling economic growth across Europe and Africa.

About Vodafone

For more information, please visit www.vodafone.com, follow us on Twitter at @VodafoneGroup or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/vodafone.

About Microsoft

Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT” @microsoft) enables digital transformation for the era of an intelligent cloud and an intelligent edge. Its mission is to empower every person and every organisation on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft,
(425) 638-7777,
rapidresponse@we-worldwide.com

Investor Relations
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ir@vodafone.co.uk

Media Relations
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Forward-looking statements

The information in this announcement (the “Information”) may constitute or include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements that typically contain words such as “estimate”, “intend”, “plan”, “goal”, “aim”, “will”, or other words of similar meaning. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur in the future. Vodafone cautions you that forward-looking statements are not guarantees of the occurrence of such future events or of future performance and that in particular, the development of the strategic partnership between Vodafone and Microsoft and its outcome or impact on Vodafone, its business, results of operations and financial condition may differ materially from what is suggested by the forward-looking statements contained in the Information. These expectations or any forward-looking statements could prove to be incorrect, and outcomes usually cannot be influenced by Vodafone. It should be kept in mind that actual events or consequences may differ materially from expectations.

Vodafone expressly disclaims any obligation or undertaking to release any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statements to reflect any change in Vodafone’s expectations with regard thereto or any changes in events, conditions or circumstances on which any forward-looking statements are based. No representation or warranty is made that any of these forward-looking statements will come to pass or that any particular result will be achieved. Undue influence should not be given to, and no reliance should be placed on, any forward-looking statement.

SOURCE: VODAFONE