Satya Nadella Bets Big On India, Commits $17.5 Billion In AI Investment

NEW DELHI -Global tech giant Microsoft announced on December 9 that it is investing $17.5 billion in India over the next four years to drive AI diffusion in the country.

“Today we are announcing our largest investment in Asia — $17.5 billion over four years (CY 2026 to 2029) — to advance India’s cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, skilling and ongoing operations. This investment builds on the $3 billion investment announced earlier this year, which we are on track to spend by the end of CY2026,” Microsoft said in a statement.

The announcement came after Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella’s meeting here with Prime Minister Modi.

Modi posted, “When it comes to AI, the world is optimistic about India!” Adding, “Had a very productive discussion with Mr. Satya Nadella. Happy to see India being the place where Microsoft will make its largest-ever investment in Asia. The youth of India will harness this opportunity to innovate and leverage the power of AI for a better planet.”

The new investment will be used to continue to scale up Microsoft’s cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling initiatives, and ongoing operations across India. This includes the company’s workforce of more than 22,000 employees across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram, Noida, and other cities.

One of the key priorities of the Microsoft investment is building secure, sovereign-ready hyperscale infrastructure to enable AI adoption in India. At the heart of this effort is the significant progress being made at the India South Central cloud region, based in Hyderabad, that is set to go live in mid-2026.

The company said it will also continue to expand the three existing operational data center regions in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune. This expansion provides organizations across India with greater choice and resilience, enabling low-latency, mission-critical performance for enterprises, startups, and public sector institutions. (IANS)