Nadella steps up AI pitch as Big Tech's India race heats up

Microsoft also committed $17.5 bn for India AI infrastructure; skill 20 mn people in four years

- Shouvik Das [e-mail]

Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella is in India, promoting the company’s artificial intelligence (AI) tools such as Copilot, agentic AI, and datasets, and urging the government and domestic businesses to adopt them.

Microsoft's push follows rival Google’s recent $15-billion investment to set up a one-gigawatt (GW) datacentre in India, signalling rising competition among global tech giants in the country’s fast-growing digital market.

Nadella spoke in India for a second time this year on Wednesday before senior government officials and executives of big domestic enterprises. He also met billionaire Gautam Adani, showcasing Microsoft's AI capabilities to the promoter of one of India’s largest conglomerates. The company backed its pitch by committing $17.5 billion to build AI infrastructure in India and skill 20 million people over four years.