Microsoft will support the development of the 3D design suite Blender.
In one announcement of Blender revealed that the Windows maker entered the Development Fund (Development Fund) of the institution as Corporate Gold member (as of July 1, 2020) to help the company continue to provide its software for free.
Microsoft uses the Blender application to create XNUMXD models and images of people that can be used to train AI models.
For researchers, access to free high-quality / open source 3D software has proven to be of great benefit to scientific projects. You can see some of their work here (PDF).
Unlike other popular alternatives applications like Cinema4D and Maya, Blender is completely free and open source.
Of course Microsoft's contribution is € 30.000 according to Blender's membership page. The amount is not large for the company's expenses, but the move alone could significantly contribute to providing more reliability in the Blender application.
If you do not know the application and want to see what it can do, visit it Blender subreddit, and you will appreciate the software.
Blender may not be as widely accepted as Cinema4D (although things are changing very quickly), but it's certainly no less capable. The quality of the works shared by the users on the subreddit is a very good proof of that.
Help from a brand name like Microsoft will help the company reach a new audience and continue to grow.