SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Microsoft announced on Tuesday its plan to invest 3 billion U.S. dollars to expand its artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud services in India.
"The investments in infrastructure and skilling we are announcing today reaffirm our commitment to making India AI-first," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said. "The diffusion rate of AI in India is exciting."
Microsoft, among the top cloud and AI providers in India, operates three datacenter regions in India and plans to make its fourth ready to go live next year, the company said.
The 3-billion-dollar investment will be deployed to develop a scalable AI computing ecosystem to serve India's AI startups and research community.
Microsoft also said it has signed an AI memorandum of understanding with SaaSBoomi, a community for B2B startups in India. They will seek to promote entrepreneurship in smaller Indian cities and towns, and attract an additional 1.5 billion dollars in venture capital funding for Indian AI and SaaS startups.
