TMTPOST -- Microsoft Corporation pledged a $30 billion investment in India to accelerate the deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) technology there.

Credit：Microsoft

Microsoft plans to invest $30 billion  in India in cloud and AI infrastructure and skilling over the next two years, including the establishment of new datacenters, announced CEO Satya Nadella  at the Microsoft AI Tour in Bengaluru on Tuesday. The investment, which is touted as the biggest ever in India, aims to accelerate AI innovation in India, which is pivotal for achieving Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of becoming a developed nation (Viksit Bharat) by 2047.

Microsoft vowed to make India AI-first and advancing AI responsibly under six core principles: fairness, reliability and safety, privacy and security, inclusiveness, transparency, and accountability. The U.S. behemoth already has three datacenter regions in the market, and the fourth ready to go live in 2026. The new investment aims to develop a scalable AI computing ecosystem to meet the growing demands of India’s rapidly expanding AI start-ups and research community.

Nadella at the event shared a comprehensive plan to train and skill 10 million people by 2030, reinforcing its commitment to partnering with India on its journey to become an AI-first nation. Microsoft noted Indian professionals have been early adopters of AI, with a 122% year-over-year increase in Indian members adding AI skills to their profiles on LinkedIn, compared to 71% globally. In 2024, the company launched the ADVANTA(I)GE India initiative with the ambitious goal of training two million people in AI skills by 2025, and has surpassed this target ahead of schedule with 2.4 million individuals trained in under a year.

Microsoft Research (MSR) Lab Tuesday announced an AI Innovation Network to deepen its commitment to cultivate the AI ecosystem in India. Under the AI Innovation Network, MSR will build new collaborations, especially with digital natives, to accelerate the transition from research to real, usable business solutions.

Microsoft also announced an AI MoU with SaaSBoomi, the premier community for B2B startups in India. This strategic collaboration aims to accelerate the growth of India’s AI and SaaS ecosystem towards a trillion-dollar economy, aiming to impact over 5,000 startups and 10,000 entrepreneurs.

Nadella on Wednesday unveiled cloud and AI led strategic partnerships with the Indian government and industry leaders from across key sectors of the economy. Microsoft strikes strategic partnerships with RailTel, Apollo Hospitals, Bajaj Finserv, Mahindra Group, and upGrad to help their teams and customers benefit from cloud and AI innovation.

Moreover, Microsoft has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India AI, a division of Digital India Corporation, to collaborate on advancing AI and emerging technologies in India.

As part of the MoU, the two parties will skill 500,000 individuals, including students, educators, developers, government officials, and women entrepreneurs, by 2026. They will also establish an AI Center of Excellence, “AI Catalysts”, to promote rural AI innovation and support 100,000 AI innovators and developers, and Set up “AI Productivity Labs” in 20 National Skill Training Institutes (NSTIs)/NIELIT centers in 10 states to impart foundational courses for 20,000 educators.

Tech giants have been racing to ramp up their spendings on AI since the launch of OpenAI's ChatGPT kicked off the tech wave two year ago. Microsoft and three other U.S. tech giants--Meta Platformas Inc., Alphabet Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. spent more than $200 billion last year in capital expenditures, or capex, as they are scrambling to facilitate the AI build-out. Data centers powering AI are deemed as a key for them to keep up with the technology innovation. Capex became the key growth ingredient iin the AI arms race so far.

In a blog posted last Friday, Microsoft Vice Chairman and President Brad Smith said the company is on track to invest around $80 billion to build out AI-enabled data centers to train AI models in the fiscal year 2025 ended June, 2025. Microsoft will also deploy AI and cloud-based applications around the world in the fiscal year and more than half of the total annual investment will be in the United States, reflecting its commitment to this country and our confidence in the American economy, Smith wrote.