Microsoft Pledges $17.5 Billion Investment in India for Cloud & AI Infrastructure, Asia's Largest Commitment

Microsoft on Tuesday announced a $17.5 billion investment plan for India over the next four years. This will be the company’s largest commitment in Asia. The money will be used to expand cloud and AI infrastructure, boost digital-skilling programs and launch sovereign-ready cloud services for sensitive and regulated workloads.

The package builds on an earlier $3 billion pledge. It is part of Microsoft’s broader push to help India move toward an “AI-first” future. A large share of the investment will support new hyperscale datacentres, including a major India South Central region in Hyderabad that is expected to go live by mid-2026.

Posting the announcement on X, CEO Satya Nadella thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi and framed the investment as a step toward “AI diffusion at population scale,” signalling Microsoft’s intent to pair model access, local compute and regulatory-friendly cloud options to win enterprise and public-sector business in India.

Microsoft’s India AI Plan

Microsoft will also introduce Sovereign Public Cloud and Sovereign Private Cloud offerings in India. It plans to enable in-country data processing for Microsoft 365 Copilot by the end of 2025 for regulated sectors.

The company also highlighted its sustainability commitments. These include zero-water cooling systems and renewable-energy contracts linked to community funds. Microsoft framed the investment as both an infrastructure expansion and a long-term climate-aligned bet on India’s AI ecosystem.

Skilling & Research Partnerships

As part of the plan, Microsoft will double its India skilling pledge and train 20 million people by 2030. It also plans to integrate AI capabilities into national platforms such as e-Shram and the National Career Service. The goal is to support about 310 million informal workers through multilingual access, AI-assisted job matching and personalised reskilling tools.

Microsoft Research India will set up an AI Innovation Network to turn research into workable products. The company also plans to deepen its partnerships with digital-native firms and startups. In addition, a separate MoU with SaaSBoomi aims to support thousands of SaaS startups and tens of thousands of founders and employees in tier-II cities.