By Aditya Soni and Deborah Mary Sophia
BENGALURU (Reuters) -Microsoft will spend $3 billion to expand its Azure cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) capacity in India, CEO Satya Nadella said on Tuesday, doubling down on a country with expertise technology and low costs to help make these investments profitable.
The two-year investment, the country’s largest ever, will also be used to upskill Indians in AI, a Microsoft spokesperson said, adding that the spending was in addition to the company’s recently announced plan. to invest $80 billion in AI-enabled data centers. during the 2025 financial year.
India is a key growth market for US tech giants, with executives ranging from Nvidia boss Jensen Huang to Advanced Micro Devices CEO Lisa Su visiting the country in recent months, promising big investments.
Microsoft, which has more than 20,000 employees across 10 Indian cities, aims to both help the local tech community grow and tap into its talent base, Nadella said at a conference in the southern city of Bengaluru. of India.
He highlighted the community’s contribution to Microsoft, particularly its involvement in AI projects on GitHub Copilot, the AI-based generative tool for developers.
“India is the second largest (developer community on GitHub) after the United States. In fact, it is expected to become the largest in 2028.”
“We also have contributions from Indian AI projects that are second only to those from the United States.”
Microsoft, like its tech industry peers, is under pressure to show that the billions it has invested in AI technology will start to yield profits.
GitHub, however, is one of its few AI bets that has generated returns. In July, Microsoft said the tool had an annual cost of $2 billion.
Microsoft plans to train 10 million people in AI in India by 2030, Nadella said. The company upskilled 2.4 million people last year.
Like other leaders of major technology companies, Nadella, of Indian origin, enjoys great popularity in a country where engineering degrees are seen as a path to prosperity.
Hundreds of people gathered Tuesday to hear his speech, part of the “Microsoft AI Tour.”
Among them was Prashant Bhanawat, a software engineer whose company uses Azure AI services, who said he waited more than three hours to enter the conference venue.
“This is an opportunity for us to see the products in development before they are deployed, and of course to see Satya Nadella.”
(Reporting by Aditya Soni and Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Savio D’Souza)
