Microsoft Pledges $17 Billion for India’s ‘Leap’ to AI

Microsoft has pledged $17.5 billion for artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing in India.

The investment, which the company called its largest ever in Asia, was announced Tuesday (Dec. 9) after CEO Satya Nadella met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to discuss the country’s AI vision.

“Microsoft’s investment in India focuses on three pillars—scale, skills and sovereignty—aligned with the Prime Minister’s vision of building a comprehensive ecosystem that drives AI innovation and access at a national scale,” the company said in its announcement.

“Together, Microsoft and India are poised to set new benchmarks and drive the country’s leap from digital public infrastructure to AI public infrastructure in the coming decade. We are shaping a future that is more equitable and uniquely Indian in its scale and impact.”

The new funds are set to be dispersed across a four-year period beginning in 2026 and through 2029 and follow an additional $3 billion Microsoft committed to cloud and AI development in India at the start of the year. The company has also said it wants to equip 10 million people in India with AI skills by the end of the decade.

“India is rapidly becoming a leader in AI innovation, unlocking new opportunity across the country,” Nadella said in a news release at the time. “The investments in infrastructure and skilling we are announcing today reaffirm our commitment to making India AI-first and will help ensure people and organizations across the country benefit broadly.”

The company says one of its chief priorities is developing “secure, sovereign-ready hyperscale infrastructure” to promote artificial intelligence adoption in India. At the center of this effort is the company’s India South Central cloud region, based in Hyderabad and due to go live in mid-2026.

“This will be our largest hyperscale region in India, comprising three availability zones — roughly equivalent in size to two Eden Gardens stadiums combined,” the company said.

In other recent news, Microsoft and Nvidia are expanding their efforts to create what they call AI super factories, linking large data centers to train models and run enterprise AI applications. According to a Nvidia blog lost, the companies are joining Microsoft cloud infrastructure with Nvidia GPUs and microservices to support AI workloads in sectors such as manufacturing, logistics and finance.

As PYMNTS wrote last week, announcements such as these illustrate just “how quickly the AI landscape is shifting.”

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