India’s AI blitz: Microsoft invests $3.7bn, Amazon to invest $12.7bn

India is emerging as a significant player in the global artificial intelligence (AI) scene, and international tech giants have taken note. Microsoft and Amazon are early birds with plans to invest billions in the nation’s developing AI infrastructure as India marches ahead to realise its AI ambitions.

Microsoft will invest $3.7 billion in the state of Telangana to set up data centres that aim at providing 660 megawatts of information technology (IT) capacity, which could power nearly half a million households in Europe on a yearly basis. Amazon has a blueprint to pump in $12.7 billion into Cloud infrastructure, the projected deadline of which is 2030, according to a report in Financial Times.

Globally, Microsoft, Amazon and Google will invest $85 billion in data centre infrastructure across the world including India this year.

The decision of the two tech majors to invest in India seems to be in sync with the country’s IndiaAI mission, which was launched with the vision of Making AI in India and Making AI Work for India. The mission was also launched to showcase India’s global competitiveness power in the field of AI.

The Narendra Modi government allocated a budget of Rs 10,371.92 crore for a five-year period to encourage the growth of artificial intelligence in the country as part of the IndiaAI mission. The mission’s goal is to develop India as an AI hotspot, as a consumer market as well as an export hub. India’s assets include a massive count of skilled professionals and a consumer base that is receptive to the latest technology. Importantly, the government has put in place an array of effective sops for interested investors that range from data storage facility to electronics manufacture.

Microsoft and Amazon’s investment in the country could be the vital push necessary to make India a leading self-built data centre capacity of the Asia-Pacific region, the Financial Times report said. India currently occupies the sixth spot. Microsoft’s $3.7 billion project could actually turn India into the biggest market for self-built data centres apart from the United States.

The Microsoft project is important also because it would open up avenues for India to build Sovereign AI, which is essential for safeguarding data security. Sovereign AI refers to a government’s or an organisation’s control over AI technology and its associated data.