Microsoft plans to invest $17.5 billion in India over the next four years to expand its AI and cloud footprint in the South Asian country. India’s vast online and smartphone user base has turned it into a key battleground for global technology companies.
The investment, announced on Tuesday, is Microsoft’s largest in Asia and will fund new data centers, AI infrastructure and skills programs from 2026 to 2029, building on the $3 billion the company committed to India in January.
Microsoft’s move comes as the US tech giant ramps up spending on data centers and AI computing around the world, with India emerging as a strategic prize thanks to its fast-growing developer base and one of the world’s largest internet and smartphone user bases.
The move will also put pressure on rivals such as Google, Amazon and OpenAI, which are increasing their presence in India to capture demand for cloud services and AI tools from enterprises, startups and government agencies. Additionally, this investment is in line with New Delhi’s efforts to accelerate digital infrastructure and AI adoption across sectors, as India seeks to position itself as a global technology hub while addressing concerns around data governance and fair access.
The announcement was made during Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella’s visit to India and after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday ahead of a keynote address in New Delhi on Wednesday. The Redmond-based company also announced that it will open a new data center region in Hyderabad by mid-2026. It will be India’s largest and will consist of three availability zones, with a footprint roughly equivalent to two Eden Gardens stadiums, the company said. Microsoft said it will continue to expand its three existing data center regions in Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune.
As part of that push, Microsoft also announced that it will work with the Department of Labor and Employment to integrate advanced AI capabilities into two flagship digital public platforms (e-Shram and National Career Service) to deliver AI-driven services to over 310 million contingent workers.
The two Indian government platforms will leverage Microsoft’s Azure OpenAI services to provide multilingual access, AI-assisted job matching, predictive analytics on skills and demand trends, automated resume creation, and personalized routes, the company said.
tech crunch event
san francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
Microsoft also said it is rolling out new sovereign cloud options for customers in India. This includes Sovereign Public Cloud, now available across the India region, and Sovereign Private Cloud, powered by Azure Local, for both connected and air-gapped operations. The company says these products help enterprises meet regulatory and data residency requirements, and access the latest Nvidia GPUs and Microsoft 365 services to support high-performance workloads.
Microsoft also said it is accelerating its upskilling efforts, noting that through its ADVANTA(I)GE India initiative, it has trained 5.6 million people since January, significantly exceeding its goal of training 10 million people by 2030, and enabling more than 125,000 individuals to secure jobs or start their own businesses. The company is doubling down on previous efforts and working with government agencies, industry partners, and digital public platforms to expand access to training and aim to equip 20 million Indians with basic AI skills by 2030.
India attracts global technology companies in the AI era
Microsoft’s investment commitment comes just months after Google announced a $15 billion plan to build an AI hub and data center infrastructure in India. This is the company’s largest investment in India and follows an earlier commitment of $10 billion in 2020.
In recent months, India has emerged as a particularly attractive market for global technology companies looking for regions to expand their AI footprint, drawn by India’s vast internet subscriber base, hundreds of millions of smartphone users, burgeoning startup ecosystem, and the Indian government’s aggressive digitalization plans, all of which promise both consumer scale and enterprise demand. This movement has accelerated this year, with OpenAI and Anthropic opening offices in India, and Google and Perplexity partnering with major carriers Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, respectively, to further deepen their reach in the market.
But hyperscalers are expected to face major constraints in India, even as global tech companies ramp up investments. Data center expansion in India is challenged by patchy power availability in some regions, high energy costs and water scarcity. These factors could delay the construction of AI infrastructure and increase operating costs for cloud providers.
Nevertheless, the Indian government is actively working to attract more big tech investment, putting large-scale data centers and AI projects at the core of its economic and digital public infrastructure ambitions. Despite the constraints, New Delhi rolled out incentives for AI and semiconductor projects, eased some regulatory hurdles, and encouraged partnerships with domestic telecom and IT companies to further anchor global AI value chains in India.
“Microsoft has been part of the Indian fabric for more than 30 years,” Puneet Chandhok, president, Microsoft India and South Asia, said in a prepared statement. “As this country moves confidently into an AI-first future, we are proud to be positioned as a trusted partner to advance the infrastructure, innovation, and opportunities that can make a billion dreams a reality.”
Microsoft already employs over 22,000 people in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram, Noida and other cities. This includes engineering teams that build AI products such as Copilot Studio, Azure AI Search, AI agents, speech translation tools, and Azure Machine Learning for global markets, while also supporting the company’s domestic operations.
Source link
