💰 Mega Bet on India: Microsoft will invest around $17.5B in AI and cloud infrastructure by 2029. It is the company’s largest-ever deal in Asia and adds to the $3B investment announced in January.
🏗️ Hyperscale Across the Subcontinent: Mega data centers are being built in Hyderabad, Pune and Chennai, among others. The first new cloud region is scheduled to go live in mid-2026. The goal is to create Microsoft’s largest cloud footprint outside the US.
🤖 AI meets 1.4 billion users: India is becoming a global testbed for AI in government, industry and services. Millions of highly trained engineers and extremely low data costs make the country an ideal market for rapid AI scaling.
⚔️ Big Tech Infrastructure Race: Google is planning $15B, AWS has already committed $12.7B. Microsoft, Google and Amazon are now in an open race for data centers, fiber networks, power supply and AI platforms.
🏛️ Strategic servers: These investments are also a sovereignty strategy. India aims to build its own cloud and AI capabilities to reduce dependence on both China and the West at the same time.
Background
From South Korea and China to India and Southeast Asia, Big Tech and governments are pouring tens of billions of dollars into data centers, fiber networks, and AI infrastructure.
Microsoft alone has now committed a total of $20.5 billion to AI and cloud investments in India. In October, Google announced it would invest $15 billion over the next five years to build its own AI hub in the country. At the same time, New Delhi is pushing its “AI-first” strategy with subsidies for chips, data centers, and local AI models.
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