Vodafone Shares Trade Sideways on 10-Yr Microsoft Partnership

The Vodafone Group plc (LON: VOD) share price traded sideways after unveiling a comprehensive 10-year strategic collaboration with Microsoft. The alliance aims to utilise their combined expertise to deliver expansive digital platforms to over 300 million entities, including businesses, public sector organisations, and consumers throughout Europe and Africa.

The partnership focuses on several key areas: enhancing Vodafone's customer experience through Microsoft's advanced generative AI technology, scaling up Vodafone's prominent managed IoT connectivity platform, creating novel digital and financial solutions for businesses (especially SMEs) in Europe and Africa, and revising Vodafone’s worldwide data centre cloud strategy.

In cooperation with Microsoft, vodafone plans to dedicate $1.5 billion over the next decade towards developing cloud and AI services for customers. In turn, Microsoft will avail itself of Vodafone’s comprehensive fixed and mobile connectivity offerings.

A significant move within this partnership involves Microsoft investing in Vodafone's managed IoT connectivity platform. This platform is set to become an independent business entity by April 2024. 

The transition is expected to attract new partners and customers, thereby fostering growth in various applications. It will also extend the platform's capacity to connect an increased number of devices, vehicles, and machines.

The digital services emerging from this collaboration will be powered by the latest generative AI technologies, offering a unique, highly personalised customer experience across various channels. These services will be developed with a strong commitment to unbiased, ethical privacy and security standards, aligning with Vodafone's established responsible AI framework.

Margherita Della Valle, Vodafone Group CEO, 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.”

Satya Nadella, chairman and CEO of Microsoft, said: “This new generation of AI will unlock massive new opportunities for every organisation 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.”

Vodafone share price.

The Vodafone share price traded sideways after announcing a partnership with Microsoft.