Microsoft commits $17.5B to India's AI buildout after Nadella-Modi meeting
What's the story
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has announced a $17.5 billion (₹1.5 lakh crore) investment in India, the company's largest-ever investment in Asia, to support the country's AI-first future. The announcement came after his meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi earlier on Tuesday. These funds will be used to build cloud and AI infrastructure, develop skills, and create sovereign capabilities for an "AI-first future" in India.
Twitter Post
Nadella makes big announcement on X
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… pic.twitter.com/NdFEpWzoyZ
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) December 9, 2025
Infrastructure boost
Investment to strengthen India's cloud, AI infrastructure
Microsoft will invest the committed amount between 2026 and 2029, per Moneycontrol. Notably, it builds on the tech giant's previous commitment of $3 billion (₹27,000 crore) announced in January, which is expected to be spent by the end of 2026. Microsoft said this new investment will help advance hyperscale infrastructure, sovereign-ready systems, and large-scale skilling initiatives across India.
Economic impact
Microsoft's investment to create jobs and boost economy
Furthermore, the investment is expected to create jobs and boost the economy of India as Microsoft expands its cloud and AI capabilities and operations in the country. Microsoft has over 22,000 employees across cities such as Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune, Gurugram, and Noida, who work on model development, engineering, and product innovation. A major share of this investment will go into secure sovereign-ready hyperscale infrastructure, with the construction of Microsoft's India South Central cloud region in Hyderabad also underway.
Skill development
Microsoft aims to train 20 million Indians in AI
Microsoft has also doubled its skilling goal to train 20 million (two crore) Indians in AI by 2030. Since January this year, the company has already trained 5.6 million people under its "ADVANTA(I)GE India" initiative. These efforts are part of Microsoft's strategy to help India transition from digital public infrastructure to AI public infrastructure over the next decade.
New offerings
Microsoft introduces Sovereign Public Cloud for Indian customers
Meanwhile, Microsoft has also launched Sovereign Public Cloud and Sovereign Private Cloud for its Indian customers. These offerings include prescriptive architectures, compliance guardrails, governance controls, and high-performance workloads with NVIDIA GPUs. Moreover, Microsoft 365 Local, running on Sovereign Private Cloud, is now available in India, with plans to start in-country data processing by the end of 2025.