Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella today said the company is excited about investment commitments worth $17.5 billion in India in the next four years. Nadella said Microsoft is thrilled about the data centre capacity coming up in India, while stressing that along with data sovereignty, global intelligence is paramount for cyber resilience. 

"I had a chance to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi today and discussed our excitement about the investments. $17.5 billion is the largest investment we have made in Asia to date, and we are thrilled about it," Nadella said addressing Microsoft leadership connect in New Delhi today. 

"Our mission is to empower every person and every organisation in the country to be able to achieve more. That means skilling. The last time I meet PM Modi, he said for a country of India's size it is not enough. So, we said this time around let's double down. So, we are committing to skill 20 million people across India in AI skills by 2030," Nadella said. 

"We are thrilled about the data centre capacity which is coming live. We have already seen stuff in Pune, Chennai and Mumbai. We are very excited about India South Central which is coming up next year. So, this is going to be the next big data centre region for us, which is going to be scaled very rapidly," Nadella added. 

Nadella said the company is not only building these infrastructures but doing so with sovereignty controls. "Sovereignty is super important topic and everyone wants to ensure to control their data plane and application tier. So, we are building multiple options," he said. 

He said Microsoft Copilot has all its data processing happening in India. "It is no longer about any of the data going outside. So, we have local data processing happening for Copilot. So that is another big step we have taken to ensure the sovereignty of these services," he said 

Nedella said one of the key elements to be recognized is that with sovereignty, one needs to ensure world-class cyber security and cyber resilience. "When it comes to cyber security and cyber resilience, it is an intelligence game and signals game. So, you would want to see the global intelligence," adding that if you are disconnected with the global intelligence then all you have is a weak solution even if it is sovereign as it will get penetrated.  

"The question is how you keep sovereignty and cyber resilience in balance," Nadella said. 

Tech giant Microsoft has committed to invest $17.5 billion in India in the next four years to help build the infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities for India’s future in artificial intelligence. On Tuesday, Nadella, revealed this plan on X after meeting with prime minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.

“To support the country’s ambitions, Microsoft is committing US$17.5B—our largest investment ever in Asia—to help build the infrastructure, skills, and sovereign capabilities needed for India’s AI first future,” Nadella wrote on X.

Prime minister Narendra Modi responded to Nadella’s post saying, “When it comes to AI, the world is optimistic about India!”

“Had a very productive discussion with Mr. Satya Nadella. Happy to see India being the place where Microsoft will make its largest-ever investment in Asia. The youth of India will harness this opportunity to innovate and leverage the power of AI for a better planet,” PM Modi added.