This expansion not only positions India at the forefront of AI infrastructure but also reflects the rapidly growing demand for cloud services
Tech giant Microsoft on Monday said that it was rapidly expanding its data centres in India and they will not serve only for the country, but as an artificial intelligence (AI) hub for the world.
Microsoft also formally launched its fourth India cloud region, in Hyderabad, as part of its $20.5 billion investment commitment to the India’s digital and AI infrastructure.
“We roughly have 2GW of data centre capacity in our country. By 2035, we will build 6-7X… that’s already begun with $100 billion in investments already committed… The Indian government is putting in $1.3 billion, the government is truly catalysing the ecosystem… India is, and India will emerge as the AI infrastructure hub, for not just for India, but for Asia and the Global South,” Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India and South Asia said.
Digital public infrastructure
He said India has an advantage with the digital public infrastructure like the UPI, Aadhaar, Digiyatra, and all of the digital public infrastructure in the country, and now was starting to do same for AI.
“India is starting to do the same for intelligence now. It’s time for us to be digital public infrastructure to AI public infrastructure… 45,000 GPUs (graphics processing units) from the AI Mission… 14,000 datasets, more than 300 models in AIKosh, India’s shared national platform for AI datasets and models… we’re innovating, we’re building from classrooms to boardrooms,” Chandok noted.
According to research firm IDC, India’s public cloud services spending is forecast to reach $45.7 billion by 2030, growing at an annual rate of 22.2 per cent, with AI spending expected to grow at double that pace.
Meanwhile, speaking at the event, S Krishnan, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) asked Microsoft to locate future data centres closer to power generation sources rather than near cable landing stations, to cut costs for both the company and the country.
“Eventually you will have to go and install capacity closer to where the power itself is generated so that we don’t have to wheel it all across. There are costs involved there. It will be from a cost perspective for India, for the ecosystem and for you also. It will be much more economical if you go closer to where the power itself is generating,” he said.
Published on September 21, 2026
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