India Will Have the Largest Developer Community in the World by 2030, Says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

India is projected to have the world’s largest developer community by 2030, with 57.5 million developers, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said. Speaking about GitHub’s evolution, he noted that developers are especially energised by the platform’s ongoing transformation.

“GitHub is evolving into an ‘agency HQ’—not just a place for code, but a hub where every model and agent can work on your repository. Whether you're in VS Code, on the mobile app, or on the command line, GitHub becomes a multi-agent workspace that brings together traditional coding workflows and AI-powered development through Copilot,” he said.

Nadella also added that tech sovereignty will be meaningful only when backed by world-class cybersecurity and continuous access to global threat intelligence. Warning that “cybersecurity is an intelligence game,” he said sovereign systems without global threat visibility become easy targets for attackers. For countries like India, he stressed the need for governments to retain control of the control plane, data plane and application layer.

He added that Microsoft is building services with real sovereignty controls, offering public cloud with sovereignty capabilities, private cloud options and partner-operated cloud regions such as the Jio Azure region. “Copilot now processes all data within India, ensuring that data does not leave the country,” he said.

Speaking about investing on India’s infrastructure, he added, “We are investing massively in India’s infrastructure. We already have data centers in Pune, Chennai, and Mumbai, and the upcoming India South Central region in Hyderabad will scale rapidly. All our infrastructure in India is powered by 100% renewable energy.”

Microsoft’s announcement follows news from yesterday that the company will commit $17.5 billion over the next four years, its biggest investment in Asia, to boost India’s cloud and artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure, talent development, and ongoing operational capacity.

The declaration came after a meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, where they discussed ways to accelerate India’s AI adoption.

Speaking about his recent meet with PM Modi, he said, “Strong cybersecurity must accompany sovereignty. Cybersecurity is fundamentally a signals and intelligence game. Sovereignty without global intelligence creates vulnerability. The key is balancing sovereign control with global security insight. I shared these priorities in my meeting with Prime Minister Modi, and it’s encouraging to see this vision taking shape.”

He further added, “Last time I met the Prime Minister, he said our skilling efforts were not enough for a country of India’s size. So we doubled down. We are now committing to AI skilling for 20 million people across India.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft India reported robust financials on November 17, posting a 38.66% year-on-year rise in net profit to ₹1,245.18 crore for FY2025, compared with ₹898 crore in FY24. Revenue from operations also grew 27.44%, reaching ₹28,754.77 crore in FY25, up from ₹22,561.91 crore the previous year.