Largest investment in Asia: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announces $17.5 billion AI investment in India

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella on Tuesday announced that his company will invest $17.5 billion in India, the largest ever in Asia. The investment will be made to help build the infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities needed for India's AI-first future. 

"Thank you, PM @narendramodi ji, for an inspiring conversation on India’s AI opportunity. To support the country's ambitions, Microsoft is committing US$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 posted on X after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. 

"Today we are announcing our largest investment in Asia - US$17.5 billion over four years (CY 2026 to 2029) - to advance the country's cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, skilling and ongoing operations," Microsoft said in a statement. 

In their meeting, both leaders discussed the country's AI roadmap and growth priorities. Microsoft said that its investment in India focuses on three pillars - scale, skills and sovereignty - aligned with the Prime Minister's vision of building a comprehensive ecosystem that drives AI innovation and access at a national scale. 

In January this year, during his visit to India, Nadella had announced the company's plans to invest $3 billion in India in cloud and AI infrastructure and skilling over the next two years, including the establishment of new datacenters.

Microsoft's new investment will be used to scale cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling initiatives and ongoing operations across India. This includes the company's workforce of more than 22,000 employees across Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram, Noida, and other cities. "They drive every part of our product cycle, from model development to engineering and product innovation." 

"Their work contributes to innovation across Microsoft's AI stack - from infrastructure to app platforms to products - while operating hyperscale datacenters and delivering sales and support to customers nationwide. These teams are not only powering India’s digital transformation but also delivering AI impact at scale globally - Copilot Studio, Azure AI Search, AI agents, AI speech and translation, Azure Machine Learning and more," the statement said. 

Microsoft further stated that one of the key priorities of its investment is building secure, sovereign-ready hyperscale infrastructure to enable AI adoption in India. "At the heart of this effort is the significant progress being made at the India South Central cloud region, based in Hyderabad – that is set to go live in mid-2026," it said, adding that this will be the company's largest hyperscale region in India, comprising three availability zones — roughly equivalent in size to two Eden Gardens stadiums combined.

The tech firm will also expand its three existing operational data center regions in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Pune. "This expansion provides organisations across India greater choice and resilience, enabling low-latency, mission-critical performance for enterprises, startups, and public sector institutions."