Microsoft to invest $50 billion in Global South AI expansion by 2030, flags widening digital divide

US technology major Microsoft has said it is on pace to invest $50 billion by the end of this decade to expand artificial intelligence infrastructure, skilling and innovation across countries in the Global South, underscoring concerns over a widening AI divide between developed and developing economies.

The announcement was made at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, where global technology leaders are engaging with policymakers on the future of AI.

Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President of Microsoft, said AI adoption in the Global North is currently about twice that of the Global South. “And this divide continues to widen. This disparity impacts not only national and regional economic growth, but whether AI can deliver on its broader promise of expanding opportunity and prosperity around the world,” he wrote in a joint blog post with Natasha Crampton, the company’s Chief Responsible AI Officer.

Drawing a historical parallel, Smith added: “For more than a century, unequal access to electricity exacerbated a growing economic gap between the Global North and South. Unless we act with urgency, a growing AI divide will perpetuate this disparity in the century ahead.”

Five-part plan to drive AI diffusion at scale

In a post on X, Smith said: “Our five-part program is designed to make AI diffusion real at scale, so communities have what they need to access AI, trust it, and apply it to local priorities, with progress they can track.”

The programme focuses on building AI infrastructure, expanding skilling initiatives, strengthening multilingual capabilities, enabling local innovation, and measuring AI diffusion to guide policy. In its last fiscal year alone, Microsoft invested over $8 billion in data centre infrastructure serving the Global South, including in India, Mexico, Africa, South America, Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

India skilling push and developer momentum

In India, Microsoft will train 5.6 million people in 2025 and aims to equip 20 million Indians with AI skills by 2030. It also launched Elevate for Educators to support two million teachers across more than 200,000 institutions, expanding equitable AI access to eight million students.

The company had earlier unveiled $17.5 billion in AI investments in India, deepening its bet on one of the world’s fastest-growing digital markets.