Wednesday, 10 December 2025
Wednesday, 10 December 2025
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on Wednesday announced a $17.5-billion investment through 2030 to build infrastructure and sovereign capabilities for India’s AI-first future.
"Thank you, PM @narendramodi, for an inspiring conversation on India’s AI opportunity. To support the country’s ambitions, Microsoft is committing USD 17.5B - our largest investment ever in Asia - to help build the infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities needed for India’s AI first future," Nadella wrote on X after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi at his residence in Delhi.
"We're thrilled about all the data center capacity that is coming live. We already have stuff in Pune, Chennai and Mumbai. We are very excited about our India South Central cloud region, based in Hyderabad, that's going to come up next year," Nadella said at a Microsoft event.
Microsoft's India South Central cloud region, based in Hyderabad, is set to go live in mid-2026.
"We are really excited about the investment we made. I had a chance to meet Prime Minister Modi yesterday (Tuesday) and discussed our excitement about it (investments)," Nadella said.
PM Modi called his meeting with Nadella "productive" and said the world is optimistic about India when it comes to AI.
"Had a very productive discussion with Mr. Satya Nadella. Happy to see India being the place where Microsoft will make its largest-ever investment in Asia," he tweeted.
"The youth of India will harness this opportunity to innovate and leverage the power of AI for a better planet," he said.
In a post on X, the Union minister Ashwini Vaishnav shared his discussion with Nadella about using AI to enhance governance and public services.
“Discussed the use of AI for public good, frontier technologies, and data sovereignty. Microsoft’s landmark investment reflects India’s rise as a reliable global technology partner. This partnership will drive the country’s leap from digital to AI public infrastructure,” he wrote on X.
Nadella also met with industrialist Gautam Adani and minister Mansukh Mandaviya.
Nadella is currently on a four-day visit to India, with stops planned in Bengaluru and Mumbai after visiting Delhi. The visit is aimed at pushing Microsoft's growing presence in India and further expansion in cloud and AI markets.
During his visit to India in January, Nadella announced a $3 billion Microsoft investment for over two years, focusing on cloud, AI infrastructure and skilling.
In October, Google chief Sundar Pichai said he spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and shared the US tech giant's plans for its artificial intelligence hub in Andhra Pradesh's Visakhapatnam, the US company's biggest ever investment in the country.
Google partnered with the Adani Group for a data centre and AI base in Visakhapatnam, its largest hub outside the US, and said it has plans to invest $15 billion over the next five years.
Amazon has also invested billions into building data centres in India, while the Prime Minister met chip-maker Qualcomm's CEO, Cristiano R Amon, in October to discuss India's advancements in AI, innovation, and skilling.
