Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella has unveiled the company’s $3 billion investment to accelerate India’s artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud ecosystem. The announcement came during his keynote session at the Microsoft AI Tour in Bengaluru, marking the tech giant’s largest expansion in the country to date.
“This is the golden age for systems when it comes to innovation,” Nadella declared, underscoring the transformative potential of AI technologies.
Nadella outlined Microsoft’s vision to integrate AI seamlessly into workflows through its Copilot technology, which enhances productivity by embedding AI into familiar tools and platforms. He emphasised that the next 12 months will be pivotal as developers across industries adopt cutting-edge AI solutions.
“The next thing we are thinking about is extensibility,” he said, hinting at innovations designed to expand AI’s capabilities even further.
Addressing the scalability of AI, Nadella affirmed, “The law [of scaling in AI] is great and absolutely still works.” He also highlighted Microsoft’s extensive infrastructure, which includes more than 300 data centres globally to support the increasing demand for AI workloads.
“AI doesn’t sit on its own,” Nadella noted. “Microsoft is building the required compute stack to ensure reliability and efficiency at scale.”
Nadella shared details of his recent meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, where they discussed Microsoft’s vision for advancing India’s technology landscape. The conversation spanned topics including AI, innovation, and digital transformation.
The investment aligns with Microsoft’s commitment to empowering developers and businesses in India, a country seen as a critical hub for the company’s AI and cloud ambitions.
Pawan Prabhat, Co-Founder of Shorthills AI commented, "As a Gold Partner of Microsoft, we are very bullish about the positive impact of this investment on the entire eco-system. However, the real impact of this would be measured by the reduced cost of computing power and ease of use of AI in enterprises. This will be the real litmus test for the impact of this $3 billion investment on the ecosystem."