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LONDON and REDMOND, Wash. Jan. 15, 2024 Vodafone and Microsoft Corp. on Tuesday announced a new, far-reaching 10-year strategic partnership that leverages their respective strengths in offering scaled digital platforms to more than 300 million businesses, public sector organizations, and consumers across Europe and Africa.

Through the partnership, the companies will collaborate to transform Vodafones customer experience using Microsofts generative AI; hyperscale Vodafones leading managed IoT connectivity platform; develop new digital and financial services for businesses, particularly SMEs across Europe and Africa; and overhaul its global data center cloud strategy.

Vodafone will invest $1.5 billion over the next 10 years in cloud and customer-focused AI services developed in conjunction with Microsoft. Additionally, Microsoft will use Vodafones fixed and mobile connectivity services.

Microsoft also intends to invest in Vodafones managed IoT connectivity platform, which will become a separate, standalone business by April 2024. The new company will attract new partners and customers, driving growth in applications and expanding the platform to connect more devices, vehicles and machines.

The digital services generated by the new partnership will use the latest generative AI technology to provide a highly personalized and differentiated customer experience across multiple channels. They will be built on unbiased and ethical privacy and security policies under Vodafones established framework for responsible AI.

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group chief executive, said: 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.

This new generation of AI will unlock massive new opportunities for every organization and every industry around the world, said Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO, Microsoft. 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 companys transition to the cloud.

The companies have identified five key areas of collaboration:

About Vodafone

For more information, please visitwww.vodafone.com, follow us on Twitter at @VodafoneGroup or connect with us on LinkedIn atwww.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 organization on the planet to achieve more.

For more information, press only:

Microsoft Media Relations, WE Communications for Microsoft, (425) 638-7777, [emailprotected]

Vodafone Group Media Relations, [emailprotected]

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Vodafone and Microsoft sign 10-year strategic partnership to bring generative AI, digital services and the cloud to more ... - Microsoft