Microsoft plays a big bet, announces $3 billion investment for cloud and AI expansion in India

Microsoft announces $3 billion investment in India:Microsoft has announced an investment of $3 billion (about ₹24,000 crore) for the expansion of cloud and Artificial Intelligence (AI) in India. This information was given by Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday during an event in Bengaluru. Earlier, Nadella had met Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Nadella said that I am very excited to announce the largest expansion ever in India. We're investing an additional $3 billion to expand Azure capacity.

Big expansion in Asia, focus on AI

This investment is a big step towards Microsoft's expansion in Asia. Currently the company's focus is on developing AI technology and making it more accessible. In this field, Microsoft competes with companies like Google and OpenAI.

Microsoft also recently announced that it will invest $80 billion (₹6.4 lakh crore) in the development of data centers in the financial year 2025. These data centers will be used for training AI models and deploying AI and cloud-based applications.

New opportunities for AI and business in India

Microsoft's investment in India is not limited to just bringing AI technology to consumers. It is also encouraging companies and developers to adopt Microsoft AI tools, such as Copilot. Microsoft's Microsoft 365 Copilot AI is becoming increasingly popular in the Indian market.

Nadella said, “You can consider Copilot as the user interface of AI. “This is becoming an important means of bringing our technology closer to the user.”

Emphasis on AI agents

Microsoft is also working on AI agents, which will be capable of more than just chatting. These agents can work with software apps, online tools, calendars, travel sites, and other services. The company wants organizations to create custom AI agents as per their needs through Copilot Studio.

Competition is increasing in the field of AI agents, in which companies like Google, OpenAI and Salesforce have also launched their agentic AI systems.

This step of Microsoft can prove to be important in making India a global hub of AI and cloud technology.