Microsoft will invest $3 billion to expand its cloud and artificial intelligence capabilities in India, Chief Executive Satya Nadella said on Tuesday, doubling down on a technology-savvy, low-cost country.
The two-year investment, the largest ever in the country, will also be used to upskill Indians in AI, a Microsoft spokesperson said, clarifying that this spending goes beyond the company’s recently announced plan to invest 80 billion dollars in AI-enabled data centers in fiscal year 2025.
India is an important market for US technology companies, with executives ranging from Nvidia chief Jensen Huang to Advanced Micro Devices chief executive Lisa Su visiting the country in recent months and promising big investments.
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Microsoft, which has more than 20,000 employees across 10 Indian cities, aims to help the local tech community develop and leverage its talent base, Nadella said at a conference in the southern Indian city of Bengaluru.
He noted the community’s contribution to Microsoft, specifically its involvement in AI projects on GitHub Copilot, the company’s AI-based generative tool for developers.
“India is the second largest (developer community on GitHub) after the United States. In fact, it is projected to be the largest in 2028.”
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“We also have contributions from AI projects from India that are second only to the United States.”
Microsoft, like its technology peers, is under pressure to show that the billions of dollars it has invested in AI technology will start generating profits.
GitHub, however, is one of its few AI bets that has yielded returns.
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Microsoft plans to train 10 million people in AI in India by 2030, Nadella said. The company trained 2.4 million people last year.
