Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella and General Electric Chief Executive John Flannery speak at General Electric Company’s Minds + Machines conference in San Francisco, California, U.S., October 25, 2017. REUTERS/Alwyn Scott
October 26, 2017
By Alwyn Scott
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – General Electric Co <GE.N> and Microsoft Corp <MSFT.O> are due to announce a deeper partnership involving GE’s Predix industrial internet platform and Microsoft’s Azure cloud platform, a senior GE executive said.
The agreement broadly expands integration of Microsoft’s cloud software with GE’s Predix applications, Bill Ruh, Chief Executive of GE Digital, told Reuters late on Tuesday.
Predix is a software platform developed by GE that connects industrial equipment like jet engines and power plants to computers that can predict failures and reduce operating costs.
The partnership, due to be announced on Wednesday by GE Chief Executive Officer John Flannery and Microsoft Chief Executive Officer Satya Nadella, comes days after GE announced a partnership with Apple Inc <AAPL.O>. It shows GE’s ability to forge significant new deals with its industrial internet system after a rocky period with Predix.
The joint effort is focused initially on oil-and-gas and mining companies, but would also be applicable to other companies that run Microsoft software, which includes the vast majority of industrial companies, Ruh said. He declined to provide further details.
(Reporting by Alwyn Scott; Editing by Nick Zieminski)
