Microsoft: Global software powerhouse Microsoft has pledged an investment of $17.5 billion to help build infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities for AI future in India.
This marks the US tech giant’s largest investment in Asia. The announcement follows a meeting of Nadella with the Indian PM Narendra Modi.
What’s the Microsoft investment for?
The Microsoft investment is aimed at expanding hyperscale infrastructure, embedding artificial intelligence into national platforms and advancing workforce readiness that will be spread over a period of 4 years.
The funds would be used to scale Microsoft’s existing cloud and AI infrastructure to serve customers across different regions in India. The software giant provides “Sovereign Public Cloud” and “Sovereign Private Cloud” services in several regions.
Microsoft added that it was doubling its commitment made in January to train 20 million Indians in AI by 2030.
PM Modi emphasized on building an AI sovereignty and comprehensive tech ecosystem. Recently, India also attracted data center investment pledges of $15 billion from Google and $8 billion from Amazon Web Services.
The Microsoft investment was labelled by India’s Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw as a signal of the country’s rise as a reliable global tech partner, accelerating the shift from digital to AI public infrastructure.
