Samsung is strengthening its artificial intelligence and cloud computing offerings by partnering with Microsoft. As noted in a post by retailnews.asia, Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong met with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in Seoul, South Korea, on Wednesday to discuss Samsung’s plans for the future. Nadella was in Seoul to deliver a keynote speech at Microsoft Korea’s “Future Now” artificial intelligence (AI) conference. During his keynote speech, Nadella mentioned that Samsung utilized Azure to develop some of Samsung’s latest offerings.
“Take the example of Samsung Electronics’ IoT [Internet of Things]-based air conditioner that runs on Azure. By taking into account environmental factors, like the number of people, the smart air conditioner can save up to 25 percent in energy and 30 percent in costs.”
Currently, Microsoft uses Samsung’s semiconductors for their Azure cloud servers, and Samsung will look to sell more to Microsoft in the near future. Other media reports suggest that Samsung is looking to use Microsoft cloud services on some Samsung smartphones too. This new Samsung-Microsoft partnership announcement comes on the heels of Samsung unveiling its first foldable smartphone prototype, which might be an upcoming release in Samsung’s Galaxy device lineup. Certainly, Microsoft will get a big boost if Samsung decides to use Microsoft Azure to power their phones.
