Microsoft completes $19.7 billion acquisition of AI giant Nuance

By Sean Endicott
published

After almost a year since the deal was announced, Microsoft has completed its purchase of Nuance.

Microsoft Logo 2022
Microsoft Logo 2022 (Image credit: Daniel Rubino / Windows Central)

What you need to know

  • Microsoft has completed its $19.7 billion of Nuance, a company that specializes in artificial intelligence.
  • Nuance helped Apple create Siri, but it is more known today for its use of AI in the medical industry.

Microsoft's acquisition of Nuance has been completed. Nuance is a well-known company specializing in artificial intelligence that also has a strong foothold in the medical industry. Microsoft initially announced its agreement to purchase Nuance for $19.7 billion back in April 2021. The deal has since gone through the required regulatory approvals.

"Completion of this significant and strategic acquisition brings together Nuance's best-in-class conversational AI and ambient intelligence with Microsoft's secure and trusted industry cloud offerings," said Microsoft's Scott Guthrie. "This powerful combination will help providers offer more affordable, effective and accessible healthcare, and help organizations in every industry create more personalized and meaningful customer experiences. I couldn't be more pleased to welcome the Nuance team to our Microsoft family."

People may be more familiar with Nuance for its work to help create Apple's Siri, but the company's voice technology is used in a variety of ways, including within the medical industry.

Our Robert Carnevale spoke with several analysts about why Microsoft purchased Nuance when the deal was initially announced.

"The healthcare industry is primed for digital transformation. All of the digital giants have healthcare initiatives. This acquisition moves MS forward in that effort," said Gartner analyst Gregg Pessin after the initial announcement of the deal. "It provides access to Nuance's well-established healthcare client base — think EHRs with digital transcription capabilities."

Microsoft's $19.7 billion purchase of Nuance is one of its largest to date. In total value, the Nuance acquisition only trails behind Microsoft's $26.2 billion purchase of LinkedIn and the company's massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard for almost $70 billion.

Sean Endicott
Sean Endicott
News Writer and apps editor

Sean Endicott brings nearly a decade of experience covering Microsoft and Windows news to Windows Central. He joined our team in 2017 as an app reviewer and now heads up our day-to-day news coverage. If you have a news tip or an app to review, hit him up at sean.endicott@futurenet.com (opens in new tab).

1 Comment
  • what makes me excited is extended language support. Nuance is behind language support on Apple platforms and a huge reason iPhones are so popular with Vietnamese speakers is the strong language support. always doing dictation in Vietnamese. Windows traditionally has been very weak in Vietnamese support so now hopefully that changes big time. And Nuance's tech doesn't require the level of training that Windows dictation does. Windows has gotten much better with online dictation but I would rather have offline local dictation where you don't need a connection. For example, we have drivers who deliver to homes and language translation on the phone or tablet requires a good connection. But if it was local translation, that would benefit them a lot as they often visit a location with poor cellular service.