Microsoft's biggest India data center on track to go live in mid-2026, executive says

By Aditya Soni and Abhirami G

May 19 (Reuters) - Microsoft's biggest information halfway successful India is connected way to unfastened by mid-2026, its state caput ‌said connected Tuesday, arsenic the tech elephantine spends heavy to bolster ‌its presumption successful 1 of the world's largest markets for artificial quality services.

There's "massive demand" for Azure ​cloud services and the $30-a-month Copilot 365 AI adjunct successful the country, Puneet Chandok, president, Microsoft India and South Asia, told Reuters.

Like rivals Alphabet and Amazon, Microsoft sees India arsenic a perchance profitable marketplace for AI acknowledgment to its much than 1 ‌billion net users and ⁠deep tech talent.

Tapping that marketplace is important arsenic it looks to beryllium to investors that its monolithic stake connected AI volition ⁠pay off.

The institution announced precocious past twelvemonth that it would put $17.5 cardinal successful India, its biggest outlay successful Asia, connected apical of the $3 cardinal pledged astatine the commencement ​of ​2025. That includes a caller information halfway ​in the confederate tech hub of ‌Hyderabad, wherever Microsoft already has a important presence.

"We are the ones who are bringing this to beingness quickly, the fastest retired of the gates," Chandok said of the company's information halfway build-out, adding that the Hyderabad installation would beryllium its biggest successful India without disclosing nonstop capacity.

The expanding capableness would beryllium utilized ‌to service its increasing lawsuit basal for Copilot ​in India, including IT giants specified arsenic Infosys, ​Cognizant and Tata Consultancy Services - ​all of which person astir 50,000 licenses each.

Chandok besides said ‌that respective of the AI features ​Microsoft is rolling retired ​are being developed successful India, wherever the institution employs much than 22,000 radical crossed cities.

Hiring unit to make the features is getting tougher arsenic ​demand exceeds supply, causing ‌a "war for talent," Chandok said.

"The challenges successful India are the aforesaid ​as everyplace other successful the world."

(Reporting by Aditya Soni and Abhirami ​G successful Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D'Silva)