$95 billion in five months: Global CEOs are lining up cheques for India

Even as the world is grappling with trade and energy crises, India has witnessed fresh investments from global companies. Global CEOs lined up cheques for India – a sum of $94.95 billion in the past five months. 

Here are some of the biggest commitments announced by global CEOs and companies: 

Google announced a five-year plan to invest $15 billion in AI infrastructure in India on February 18. The investment will focus on subsea connectivity, data centres, cloud capacity, and AI skill development.

On March 9, ABB revealed a $75 million investment to expand its manufacturing and research and development capabilities in critical industrial sectors in India.

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Australia’s AirTrunk declared on June 5 its intention to invest $30 billion in India to build 5 gigawatts of data centre capacity by 2030.

The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board committed up to ₹7,000 crore ($83.7 million) on June 17 with CtrlS Datacenters to enhance India’s digital infrastructure and hyperscale data centre capacity.

Saint-Gobain announced on June 18 a €1 billion investment in India over the next five years, describing the country as one of its fastest-growing markets.

Amazon CEO Andy Jassy met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 25 and announced plans to increase Amazon’s investment commitment in India to $48 billion by 2030. This includes new investments in AI and cloud infrastructure.

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These investments come as global CEOs see India as the next big growth engine. 

In the June Monetary Policy Committee meeting announcements, Reserve Bank of India Governor Sanjay Malhotra had lowered the real GDP growth for the year to 6.6 per cent from the earlier 6.9 per cent. Even though the projection was lowered, India remained one of the most rapidly growing major economies in the world. 

Malhotra acknowledged that the rise in energy prices is expected to weigh on economic activity, but also that the full impact will depend on the evolving geopolitical situation.