BIG TECH RUSH TO BUILD CLOUD, AI INFRA IN INDIA

THERE is a sudden downpour of Big Tech investments in India.

- GURBIR SINGH

Amazon has just announced it will invest $35 billion by 2030 for advancing Al-driven digitisation.Earlier, on Tuesday, Microsoft said it will pump in $17.5 billion through to 2029 to strengthen the country’s AI ecosystem. That’s pledges for $52.5 billion in one week. Earlier, in October, Google said it would spend $15 billion to build new artificial intelligence data centres in India, taking the total to $67.5 billion.

There’s more. Intel too has announced it will support the Tata Group’s new semiconductor manufacturing plans. Meta is not far behind. It is considering building a data centre in India, a project that might be linked to its ambitious Waterworth subsea cable.

Project Waterworth is Meta’s massive, 50,000 km subsea cable system, set to be the world’s longest, connecting countries like the US, India, Brazil, and South Africa by 2030.

Data centre hub

These investment plans indicate an important shift. So far, India was important to Big Tech companies as a market for their products. But there is a change now. What we are seeing after the artificial intelligence (AI) revolution, India has become a major hub for developing Al infrastructure such as data centres.

Amazon is betting big on India wanting to expand from just quick commerce to cloud computing. The company says the new investments will create a million jobs, as it pushes to keep pace with competition from Walmart’s Flipkart, and other instant delivery outfits Blinkit, Instamart, Zepto and the home grown Meesho.