Microsoft backs its $3B AI push in India with public and private sector deals

Microsoft announced a sweeping series of artificial intelligence partnerships across India’s core sectors on Wednesday, a day after pledging to invest $3 billion in the country over the next two years as it intensifies competition with rivals Google and Amazon.

The tech giant’s chief executive Satya Nadella (pictured above) unveiled agreements with five major organizations spanning railways, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and education.

This includes an agreement with the Indian Ministry of Electronics and IT, as part of which Microsoft will contribute to the ministry’s IndiaAI Mission Datasets platform by supporting data collection and synthetic generation.

The company will also train 500,000 people in AI technologies by 2026, and the two will also establish an AI Center of Excellence, called AI Catalysts, to promote rural AI innovation and set up AI labs in 20 national skill training institutes.

RailTel, a government-backed firm, has struck a five-year partnership with Microsoft to advance “digital, cloud and AI transformation” in the Indian railways. Apollo Hospitals plans to develop AI “copilots” for healthcare services. Bajaj Finance, India’s largest non-banking financial company, expects annual cost savings of $18 million by 2026 through AI implementations. Edtech startup Upgrad will work with Microsoft to build applications for use of AI in the workplace.

The push comes as Google and Amazon are racing to broaden their AI offerings and court Indian businesses, and Nvidia strikes deals to supply AI chips to India’s largest companies.

In October, Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang announced partnerships with Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries to build AI infrastructure. The chip designer also signed deals with Tata Communications and Yotta Data Services to deploy thousands of its H100 chips.

Google, which has operated in India for over two decades, recently introduced new AI-powered tools for Indian merchants that allows them to build their digital presence.