Eviden and Microsoft have agreed a partnership that will give the French IT company’s customers greater access to cloud and AI services.
The five-year strategic partnership will build on an existing collaboration between the companies with new products aimed at industries such as financial services, manufacturing, and life science.
Eviden is the cloud and data division of IT services provider Atos, which was spun off into a separate company last year.
The duo believes the partnership could be worth an additional $2.8 billion in cloud business for Eviden over its lifetime.
Together, the companies will develop “accelerators for joint go-to-market activities in key industries such as financial services, automotive, manufacturing, energy and utilities, health care, life sciences, and [the] public sector," according to a statement announcing the deal.
Co-innovation “industry hubs” will be launched to accelerate advanced research and the co-development of generative AI-enabled industry solutions across key sectors.
Eviden will strengthen its team by upskilling and training its team with more than 16,000 new Microsoft certifications over the next five years, and will build out its sales team across multiple markets in Europe and the US.
Judson Althoff, executive vice president and chief commercial officer at Microsoft, said: “Organizations today are seeking to apply generative AI responsibly and securely to help them solve their most pressing business challenges.
“I am pleased to expand our collaboration with Eviden - a leading digital transformation partner - to deliver innovative AI solutions.
“Together, we will help customers across industries realize the full potential of their data to unlock business growth and accelerate AI transformation.”
Eviden looks to partnerships for growth
Eviden has been operating independently since Atos split into two separate businesses last year in a bid to return to profitability after years of financial struggles. The company's legacy IT infrastructure contracts are now managed by another business, Tech Foundations, allowing Eviden to focus on growth areas such as cloud, AI, and cybersecurity.
It has been pursuing partnerships with the US hyperscale cloud providers in a bid to stay relevant to its customers, and in November penned an AI deal with Amazon’s AWS.
Carlo d’Asaro Biondo, Eviden CEO and group general manager in charge of business operations, said: “This partnership exemplifies a shared commitment to drive innovation, and by combining our respective strengths, we will empower organizations to optimize the use of data and AI to deliver exceptional value and thrive in today’s rapidly evolving digital and cloud landscape.
“This further strengthens Atos Group’s partnership with Microsoft, coming in addition to the extended collaboration on Digital Workplace with Atos’ Tech Foundations business line, announced in November.”
Eviden is also active in the supercomputing space, and is one of the companies building Europe’s first exascale machine in Germany. This will be powered by 24,000 Nvidia GH200 superchips.
As reported by DCD last week, Eviden has also been awarded a contract to build a 2,300 sqm modular data center to house the computer, known as Jupiter.
