When Microsoft invested in Adaptive Biotechnologies – a an experimental health-care firm, in late 2017, it aimed to test out how its advanced cloud technology works in the area of life sciences as well as to make some profits as a major shareholders of the company.

And now it appears that both the aims of Microsoft are set to be achieved.

The initial public offering of Adaptive has done well while the company is also actively engaged in the development of what it calls an “immune medicine platform” which is aimed at significantly change the manner in which diseases are treated. On Thursday, the share value of the company doubled during intra-day trading and closed at $40.30 after the share price of the company on Wednesday night was at $20 a piece. This soaring of share price of the company means that the $45 million investment in the company made by Microsoft at $10.67 a share has grown by almost four times.

There are many ways that Microsoft – which is the most valuable public company of the world with a market capitalization of more than $1 trillion, can generate profits. One such method is investing in start-ups. However compared to a number of other large tech companies such as Alphabet, Microsoft lags behind in investing in startups. Alphabet has set up multiple venture firms which invest in a varying range of startups – from early to late-stage deals. Salesforce too is another US teach firm that is also highly invested in startups with its major investments being made in the field of cloud software. It has also recently launched specific funds in Canada, Japan and Australia.

In addition to the investments made by Microsoft in Adaptive – which has so far this year been the biggest biotech IPO, there are much more at stake for the tech giant. The life sciences segment has shown potential to be a highly lucrative one in the near future because a greater number of emerging health-related companies are adapting and adopting software in the cloud to tackle heavy workloads. This gives a chance to test out the artificial intelligence tools of Microsoft’s Azure unit. This cloud infrastructure focused company of Microsoft is placed second in the industry just behind Amazon Web Services. Compared to a market value of $57.7 billion in 2015, the global immunology market will grow to $74.1 billion in 2022, according to Orbis Research.

According to its IPO prospectus, over a period of seven years, a total of $12 million is planned ot be spent on Azure by Adaptive. The document also states that Microsoft is the exclusive provider of cloud services during that period.

“We believe deeply in the potential for this partnership with Adaptive and have made a substantial financial investment in the company,” Peter Lee, Microsoft’s corporate vice president of AI and research, wrote in a blog post when the agreement was announced. “We have also begun a major research and development collaboration that involves Adaptive’s scientists working closely with our top researchers to use Adaptive’s innovative sequencing technology and Microsoft’s large-scale machine learning and cloud computing capabilities to make deep reading of the immune system a reality.”

(Adapted from CNBC.com)