Microsoft has announced a $17.5 billion investment in India, its largest commitment in Asia to date.
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella revealed the plan on X, stating that the funds will support India’s infrastructure, skills, and capacity-building for an AI-driven future. No further details were provided in his announcement.
Earlier this year, Microsoft unveiled a $3 billion plan to invest in AI and cloud infrastructure in India over the next two years.
Global tech companies are increasingly focusing on India, the world’s most populous nation and its fifth-largest economy, to expand their user base.
Artificial intelligence has become a key area of interest. In October, US startup Anthropic announced plans to open a local office in India, with CEO Dario Amodei meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The same month, Google pledged a $15-billion investment over five years, including the construction of a massive data centre and AI hub in India.
OpenAI revealed it will soon establish an Indian office, with CEO Sam Altman highlighting a fourfold increase in ChatGPT usage in the country over the past year.
In July, AI firm Perplexity announced a major partnership with Airtel, offering the Indian telecommunications giant’s 360 million customers a free one-year subscription to Perplexity Pro.
