Microsoft To Invest $17.5 Bn In India To Bolster AI Stack

In a series of meetings, Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi yesterday met Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, chipmaker Intel’s chief executive Lip-Bu Tan and SaaS major Cognizant’s CEO Ravi Kumar S. 

During his meeting with PM Modi in New Delhi, Nadella announced a $17.5 Bn (INR 1.5 Lakh Cr) investment towards building infrastructure, skills and sovereign capabilities for the country’s “AI first future”.

“… To support the country’s ambitions, Microsoft is committing $17.5 Bn – our largest investment ever in Asia – to help build the infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities needed for India’s AI first future,” said Nadella in a post on X. 

Responding to the post, the PM said, “When it comes to AI, the world is optimistic about India! 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”.

Meanwhile, the PM’s meeting with Tan centred around topics related to technology, computing and the “tremendous potential for India”. The Intel CEO added that the chipmaker is committed towards supporting the India Semiconductor Mission.

During the meeting between PM Modi and Cognizant CEO, the two leaders discussed matters related to accelerating AI adoption, and advancing education and skill development to enhance AI capabilities and productivity.

Microsoft’s India Pitch

In a statement released shortly after Nadella’s meeting with PM Modi, Microsoft said that it will invest $17.5 Bn in India over the course of next four years (from 2026 to 2029). The big tech major said that the capital will go towards bolstering its cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling initiatives and ongoing operations. 

“One of the key priorities of our 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. This will be our largest hyperscale region in India, comprising three availability zones…,” read the statement. 

Alongside, the big tech major plans to continue expanding its three existing operational data center regions in the country, namely Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.  

In addition, Microsoft also announced plans to integrate its AI capabilities into two digital public platforms, namely e-Shram and the National Career Service. As part of this, Microsoft will leverage its Azure OpenAI stack to offer multilingual access, AI-assisted job matching, predictive analytics, and automated resumé creation on the two platforms. 

As part of the investment, Microsoft also said that it now plans to “equip” 2 Cr local citizens with essential AI skills by 2030. In January this year, the company had set a target of training 1 Cr Indians in the new technology. So far under its ADVANTA(I)GE India initiative, the company claims to have already trained 56 Lakh people. 

Alongside, the big tech juggernaut also announced the launch of its sovereign public cloud and private cloud for local users. While the former will enable enterprises to deploy workloads with built-in “compliance guardrails”, the latter will “support both connected and disconnected operations in customers or our (Microsoft) partner’s data centers”.

The latest commitment comes less than a year after Microsoft announced an investment of $3 Bn in the country to establish cloud and AI infrastructure in Bengaluru over the next two years. Together, the big tech major has committed nearly $20 Bn in India over the span of next four years.