A day after meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the tech giant will invest USD 3 billion (about Rs 25720 crore) in India to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence capabilities.

Addressing a conference attended by startup founders and executives from technology firms in Bengaluru, Nadella said that the company will also train 10 million (1 crore) people in AI skills in India by 2030. Nadella said the USD 3 billion investment in India would be the "single-largest expansion" done in the country. "The diffusion rate of AI in India is exciting." He, however, did not give a time frame for the spending.

Microsoft provides its cloud computing services under the Azure brand name. It has over 60 Azure regions comprising more than 300 data centres. "In India, we are excited about all the regions that we have. We have Central India, South India, West India, and South Central India. We also have the capacities that we built up with Jio. We have a lot of regional expansion happening," Nadella said.

In his last visit, the Microsoft chairman highlighted the pivotal role of India's developer community in building cutting-edge products and solutions that solve challenges for the nation and can be deployed around the world. Nadella is the latest in the list of tech tycoons to have visited India. Chip maker Nvidia chief Jensen Huang, AMD's Lia Su and Meta chief AI scientist Yann LeCun had in recent months visited India.

Source : DNA India