What happened Shares of General Motors (NYSE: GM) opened higher on Tuesday, after the company announced that tech giant Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) will join a new round of investment in self-driving start-up Cruise. As of 10 a.m. EST, GM's shares were up about 6.8% from Friday's closing price. So what GM and Cruise said on Tuesday that they have entered into a "long-term strategic relationship" with Microsoft. Here are the key points of the deal: Cruise's autonomous taxis will use Microsoft's Azure cloud-computing platform. Azure will become the preferred cloud-computing platform for General Motors. Microsoft will join GM, Honda Motor (NYSE: HMC), and some unnamed institutional investors in a new funding round of more than $2 billion for Cruise. Cruise's "post-money" valuation, meaning its valuation after this funding round closes, will be $30 billion, the companies said. That's why shares of GM, which holds a majority interest in Cruise, are higher today. Cruise's self-driving taxis will use Microsoft's Azure cloud-computing platform. Image source: General Motors. Now what The size of Microsoft's investment wasn't revealed -- it's part of that "more than $2 billion" total -- but there's no doubt it's a significant deal for Cruise, and for Cruise's majority investor, GM. I expect auto investors will learn more about the deal when GM reports its fourth-quarter and full-year 2020 earnings in early February. 10 stocks we like better than General MotorsWhen investing geniuses David and Tom Gardner have a stock tip, it can pay to listen. After all, the newsletter they have run for over a decade, Motley Fool Stock Advisor, has tripled the market.* David and Tom just revealed what they believe are the ten best stocks for investors to buy right now... and General Motors wasn't one of them! That's right -- they think these 10 stocks are even better buys. See the 10 stocks *Stock Advisor returns as of November 20, 2020 Teresa Kersten, an employee of LinkedIn, a Microsoft subsidiary, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. John Rosevear owns shares of General Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Microsoft. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.Source