Microsoft will invest $3 billion (approximately Rs 25,000 crore) in India to expand the country's artificial intelligence (AI) capacity and its own Azure cloud-computing services business in the nation, Reuters reported citing Microsoft's chief executive officer, Satya Nadella's remarks at an event on Tuesday.
“I am really really excited to announce the single largest expansion we have ever done in India by putting USD 3 billion additional dollars to expand our Azure capacity,” Nadella said.
Microsoft Azure is a public cloud computing platform that provides a range of services to help users build, run, and manage applications.
Azure offers over 200 products and services, including computing, analytics, storage, and networking. It offers solutions for all industries, including retail, manufacturing, e-commerce, and finance. Azure offers four different cloud computing models: infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), software as a service (SaaS), and serverless functions.
Nadella also noted that his company was currently doing a lot of regional expansion in the country. Microsoft was going to train one crore people in India on AI skills by 2030, according to the new agency PTI.
This move from the Microsoft chief comes a day after he met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
After the meeting was over, Nadella expressed his gratitude to the Prime Minister via his social media post on platform X. He said he was excited to build on the commitment to “make India AI-first and work together on our continued expansion in the country to ensure that every Indian benefits from this AI platform shift.”
“It was indeed a delight to meet you, @satyanadella! Glad to know about Microsoft's ambitious expansion and investment plans in India. It was also wonderful discussing various aspects of tech, innovation, and AI in our meeting,” said Prime Minister Modi in response to Nadella's post on X.
Before meeting Modi, Nadella met Telangana Chief Minister K. Revanth Reddy, along with his cabinet ministers in Hyderabad on December 30 to discuss the company’s ongoing investments in the state and explore future collaborations in the technology sector.
Microsoft has a long-standing presence in Hyderabad and was one of the early companies to set up its operations in the emerging tech hub.
(By arrangement with livemint.com)
