Microsoft has increased its stake in race to monetise autonomous car technology by investing an undisclosed amount in General Motors’ driverless division Cruise.

The Telegraph reports that it’s joined a $2 billion (nearly £1.5 billion) funding round which has increased Cruise’s valuation to $30 billion (around £22 billion).

The paper adds that the deal also includes an agreement that Cruise will use Microsoft’s Azure cloud service for its autonomous vehicles, which it says is speeding up the widespread adoption of the technology.

The news follows the announcement last month that Cruise has begun driverless testing in San Francisco.

(Photo by Stephen Brashear for Cruise)