The initiatives highlight Microsoft’s long-term commitment to helping India build an equitable, secure, and globally competitive AI ecosystem — one powered by scale, skills, and trust
India is entering a decisive phase in its artificial intelligence journey, rapidly transforming from a digital-first nation to a global AI leader. Reflecting this momentum, Microsoft has announced its largest-ever investment in Asia — US$17.5 billion over 2026–2029 — to accelerate the country’s cloud and AI infrastructure, workforce development, and operational capabilities. This builds on the earlier US$3 billion investment, which is on track to be fully deployed by the end of 2026.
The announcement follows Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella’s meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where both leaders emphasized India’s ambitions to scale AI responsibly and inclusively. Microsoft’s new commitment is centered on three pillars: hyperscale infrastructure, AI skilling, and digital sovereignty — all designed to support India’s national AI vision.
A major highlight of this investment is the expansion of Microsoft’s hyperscale datacenter capabilities. The company will launch its largest hyperscale region in India — located in Hyderabad — by mid-2026
Spanning three availability zones and comparable in size to two Eden Gardens stadiums, the new region will establish Microsoft as the largest hyperscale operator in the country. Expansion of existing data centers in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune will further improve performance, resilience, and low-latency access for enterprises, startups, and government agencies.
AI adoption at the national scale is another focus area. Microsoft announced the integration of advanced AI tools into two major labour platforms — e-Shram and the National Career Service (NCS). This initiative aims to support over 310 million informal-sector workers, enhancing services such as multilingual access, AI-driven job matching, predictive analytics, and automated résumé building.
To prepare India’s workforce for the AI era, Microsoft has doubled its skilling commitment, pledging to train 20 million people by 2030. Its ADVANTA(I)GE India initiative has already trained 5.6 million individuals since January 2025 and supported over 125,000 with employment or entrepreneurial opportunities.
Microsoft is also deepening its digital sovereignty offerings through new Sovereign Public Cloud and Sovereign Private Cloud solutions tailored to India’s regulatory needs. Additionally, Microsoft 365 Copilot will process data within India by the end of 2025, enhancing compliance for sectors such as government, banking, and healthcare.
(Source: microsoft.com)
