With over $20bn investment, 4 IT giants onboard and 20mn learners, Microsoft redraws its India map

In one of its biggest Asia-focused commitments yet, Microsoft has announced a fresh $17.5 billion investment in India across cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling, and ongoing operations. This comes less than a year after Chairperson and CEO Satya Nadella pledged $3 billion during his January 2025 visit, taking the company's total planned investment in India to over $20 billion.

“This is the largest investment we have made in Asia, on top of even the $3 billion I announced the last time I was here,” Nadella said at the Microsoft AI Tour in Bengaluru, adding that “at the end of the day, this is all about empowering every person and every organisation in India to achieve more.”

The new $17.5 billion commitment will be deployed over the next four years. Nadella also emphasized Microsoft’s push for labour reskilling, noting that giving unorganized workers an AI boost—so they can get credentials, skills and real job opportunities—is one of the biggest benefits of the AI economy.

As part of its India roadmap, Microsoft has sealed strategic partnerships with Cognizant, Infosys, TCS and Wipro to accelerate the adoption of agentic AI. Together, these firms will deploy more than 200,000 Microsoft Copilot licences, with each committing over 50,000—setting a new bar for enterprise-scale AI rollout.

“India stands at the beginning of something much bigger, a leap into an AI-first future,” said Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India & South Asia, adding that a nation becomes frontier when digital infrastructure becomes AI infrastructure — and India is doing exactly that.

On the skilling agenda, Chandok reiterated the urgency of workforce transformation: “AI will not steal jobs; it will unbundle them. And we must re-skill faster than ever before.”

As India races toward an AI-driven future, Microsoft’s sweeping commitments spanning infrastructure, partnerships and skilling signal a long-term bet on the country’s digital ambition.