Microsoft investing $17.5 billion in India for AI and cloud infrastructure

NEW DELHI (AP) — Microsoft (MSFT) connected Tuesday announced its biggest-ever Asia investment, amounting to $17.5 billion, successful India implicit the adjacent 4 years to beforehand the country’s unreality and artificial quality infrastructure.

CEO Satya Nadella revealed this successful an X station aft gathering with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi successful New Delhi.

Nadella said that Microsoft was committing the investments to assistance India physique the “infrastructure, skills and sovereign capabilities” needed for its AI future.

The announcement underscores the increasing planetary contention among large exertion companies to grow successful India, which has go 1 of the world’s fastest-growing integer markets.

In October, Google said it volition put $15 cardinal successful India implicit the adjacent 5 years to found its archetypal AI hub successful the country. Located successful the confederate metropolis of Visakhapatnam, the hub volition beryllium 1 of Google’s largest globally.

Nadella is successful India connected a three-day travel that includes discussions with policymakers, arsenic good arsenic information successful AI-focused events successful the country's tech hub, Bengaluru, and fiscal capital, Mumbai.

India has acceptable ambitious targets to go a starring planetary hub for AI and semiconductor manufacturing. The authorities has introduced fiscal incentives aimed astatine attracting planetary chipmakers and large exertion companies to fortify the country’s innovation ecosystem, boost jobs and trim dependence connected imported technologies.

“When it comes to AI, the satellite is optimistic astir India,” Modi said connected X aft gathering with Nadella.

Microsoft’s latest India concern program tops its earlier announcement this twelvemonth of investing $3 cardinal successful gathering unreality and AI infrastructure, arsenic good arsenic caller information centers and skilling the workforce implicit the adjacent 2 years.

The company, which has operated successful India for much than 3 decades, employs much than 22,000 radical successful the state and has been expanding unreality and information halfway capableness to enactment precocious computing needs.

Microsoft said successful a connection that it hopes to standard up its ongoing operations crossed India. It plans to person its largest hyperscale beingness successful the state with a caller information halfway going unrecorded successful mid-2026.