Google Snags Ford Cloud Partnership in Coup Over Microsoft

Deal includes Google license fees for every Ford and Lincoln car sold starting in 2023

Thomas Kurian, chief executive officer of cloud services of Google, during a telecast of the SoftBank World event in Tokyo arranged in Kawasaki, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, on Oct. 29, 2020.
Photographer: Akio Kon/Bloomberg

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By Nico Grant

February 1, 2021 at 4:00 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Google signed a six-year deal with Ford Motor Co. that will bring Android technology to the automaker’s cars and cloud services to its factory floor, in a triumph for the internet giant over rival Microsoft Corp.

Google Cloud Platform will be Ford’s “preferred cloud provider” and the partners will form an innovation team called Team Upshift to jointly work on future projects, the companies said Monday in a statement. Ford dashboard infotainment screens will be powered by an Android operating system starting in 2023 and the automaker will adopt Google’s artificial intelligence and data-analytics technology.