by AFP Employees Writers
New Delhi (AFP) Dec 9, 2025
World expertise large Microsoft introduced on Tuesday plans to take a position $17.5 billion to assist construct India’s synthetic intelligence infrastructure, with CEO Satya Nadella calling it “our largest funding ever in Asia”.
A number of international firms have introduced massive investments this yr within the South Asian nation, which is projected to have greater than 900 million web customers by yr’s finish.
“To assist the nation’s ambitions, Microsoft is committing US$17.5B (billion) — our largest funding ever in Asia — to assist construct the infrastructure, expertise, and sovereign capabilities wanted for India’s AI first future,” Nadella stated in a submit on X.
Nadella made the announcement on social media after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, thanking the chief for “an inspiring dialog on India’s AI alternative”.
In a press release, Microsoft stated the funding can be unfold over 4 years.
“Collectively, Microsoft and India are poised to set new benchmarks and drive the nation’s leap from digital public infrastructure to AI public infrastructure within the coming decade,” the assertion stated.
The tech large stated one of many key priorities of its funding plan was “constructing safe, sovereign-ready hyperscale infrastructure to allow AI adoption in India”.
“On the coronary heart of this effort is the numerous progress being made on the India South Central cloud area, primarily based in Hyderabad — that’s set to go reside in mid-2026,” Microsoft added.
The deliberate cloud area is twice the dimensions of the long-lasting Eden Gardens stadium in India’s japanese metropolis Kolkata, which has a capability of over 65,000 individuals.
Microsoft stated the newest announcement “builds on” a earlier funding pledge Nadella had made earlier this yr, committing $3 billion for AI and cloud infrastructure in India over the following two years.
Modi stated he was “blissful” that the tech large had chosen India because the vacation spot for its largest funding in Asia.
“The youth of India will harness this chance to innovate and leverage the facility of AI for a greater planet,” the prime minister stated in a submit on X.
“Relating to AI, the world is optimistic about India,” Modi added.
– ‘Super potential’ –
Modi on Tuesday additionally met with the heads of tech corporations Intel and Cognizant.
Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan stated the corporate was “dedicated to assist India’s semiconductor mission”.
“We had a wide-ranging dialogue on a wide range of matters associated to expertise, computing and the super potential for India,” Tan stated in a submit on X.
Cognizant stated its CEO Ravi Kumar S met with the prime minister “for an inspiring dialog on accelerating AI adoption and advancing training and ability growth to boost AI capabilities and productiveness”.
World expertise giants are aggressively courting extra customers in India, the world’s most populous nation and fifth-largest financial system.
A particular space of focus has been synthetic intelligence with US startup Anthropic in October unveiling plans to open an workplace in India. Its chief govt Dario Amodei has additionally met Modi.
The identical month, Google stated it should make investments $15 billion in India over the following 5 years, because it introduced a large knowledge centre and synthetic intelligence base within the nation.
OpenAI has stated it should open an India workplace, with its chief Sam Altman noting that ChatGPT utilization within the nation had grown fourfold over the previous yr.
AI agency Perplexity additionally introduced a serious partnership in July with Indian telecom large Airtel, providing the corporate’s 360 million prospects a free one-year Perplexity Professional subscription.
However India’s bid to grow to be a world expertise and synthetic intelligence hub is colliding with more and more tightening digital laws.
In response to latest media experiences, authorities are drafting plans to make sure that producers allow satellite tv for pc location monitoring in smartphones that can’t be turned off by customers — a proposal that rights teams have raised the alarm over.
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