By Aditya Soni and Abhirami G
Publication Date: 2026-05-19 12:51:00
By Aditya Soni and Abhirami G
May 19 (Reuters) – Microsoft‘s biggest data center in India is on track to open by mid-2026, its country head said on Tuesday, as the tech giant spends heavily to bolster its position in one of the world’s largest markets for artificial intelligence services.
There’s “massive demand” for Azure cloud services and the $30-a-month Copilot 365 AI assistant in the country, Puneet Chandok, president, Microsoft India and South Asia, told Reuters.
Like rivals Alphabet and Amazon, Microsoft sees India as a potentially profitable market for AI thanks to its more than 1 billion internet users and deep tech talent.
Tapping that market is crucial as it looks to prove to investors that its massive bet on AI will pay off.
The company announced late last year that it would invest $17.5 billion in India, its biggest outlay in Asia, on top of the $3 billion pledged at the start of 2025. That includes a new data center in…