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Microsoft investing $17.5 billion in India for AI and cloud infrastructure

NEW DELHI (AP) — Microsoft on Tuesday announced its biggest-ever Asia investment, amounting to $17.5 billion, in India over the next four years to advance the country’s cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure.

CEO Satya Nadella revealed this in an X post after meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi.

Nadella said that Microsoft was committing the investments to help India build the “infrastructure, skills and sovereign capabilities” needed for its AI future.

The announcement underscores the growing global competition among major technology companies to expand in India, which has become one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets.

In October, Google said it will invest $15 billion in India over the next five years to establish its first AI hub in the country. Located in the southern city of Visakhapatnam, the hub will be one of Google’s largest globally.

Nadella is in India on a three-day trip that includes discussions with policymakers, as well as participation in AI-focused events in the country’s tech hub, Bengaluru, and financial capital, Mumbai.

India has set ambitious targets to become a leading global hub for AI and semiconductor manufacturing. The government has introduced financial incentives aimed at attracting global chipmakers and major technology companies to strengthen the country’s innovation ecosystem, boost jobs and reduce dependence on imported technologies.

“When it comes to AI, the world is optimistic about India,” Modi said on X after meeting with Nadella.

Microsoft’s latest India investment plan tops its earlier announcement this year of investing $3 billion in building cloud and AI infrastructure, as well as new data centers and skilling the workforce over the next two years.

The company, which has operated in India for more than three decades, employs more than 22,000 people in the country and has been expanding cloud and data center capacity to support advanced computing needs.

Microsoft said in a statement that it hopes to scale up its ongoing operations across India. It plans to have its largest hyperscale presence in the country with a new data center going live in mid-2026.

Beijing bans 4 New Zealand lawmakers from entering China because they visited Taiwan

By WTOP Staff
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Beijing banned four New Zealand lawmakers from traveling to China for a year and demanded they apologize because they visited Taiwan on a parliamentary trip, according to a message from the Chinese embassy conveyed via parliamentary officials and shown to The Associated Press on Thursday. China has hit lawmakers from other countries with sanctions related to contact with Taiwan before, but it's the first time for New Zealand parliamentarians, the government in Wellington said. Beijing has been increasing pressure in recent years on the democratically governed island that it claims as its own territory. Two lawmakers reached by the AP on Thursday rejected the demand for an apology, while the other two could not be immediately reached. New Zealand's government said it would express concern about the travel bans to Beijing. The elected officials visited Taipei in May, as New Zealand parliamentarians have done “for decades,” a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Winston Peters said in a statement.
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