Amazon and Microsoft are reportedly investing billions of dollars in artificial intelligence (AI) efforts in India.
As the Financial Times reported on Monday, India is offering incentives to tech companies to set up shop in the country, hoping that its fast-growing tech market and huge pool of skilled workers will position it to become a major consumer and exporter of AI.
According to the report, Microsoft will invest about $3.7 billion in the southern Indian state of Telangana to build a data center there and add 660 megawatts of IT capacity, enough to power about 500,000 European homes for a year.
Meanwhile, Amazon plans to invest around $12.7 billion in cloud infrastructure in India by the end of the decade, the report added.
“India is one of the most exciting markets in the world for technology right now,” Puneet Chandhok, Microsoft's president for India and South Asia, told the Financial Times.
“The aim is to continue building capabilities in the region to serve our customers as they continue to innovate for India and the world.”
The FT points out that efforts by tech companies to build their own data centers in India will see the country become number one in the world in terms of its capacity to build its own data centers.
This follows reports last month that Microsoft and Amazon have committed $40 billion to AI infrastructure projects this year alone.
Also in May, chipmaker Nvidia reported that it was seeing increased demand for its products from companies and countries transitioning from traditional data centers into “AI factories.”
“In the first quarter, we worked with more than 100 customers to build AI factories ranging from hundreds to tens of thousands of GPUs, with some reaching 100,000 GPUs,” Colette Kress, NVIDIA executive vice president and chief financial officer, said on the earnings call.
Meanwhile, PYMNTS surveyed chief financial officers last week about the popularity of AI. The survey found that 63% said AI technology reduces the need for lower-skilled workers, but may also create a need for new skill sets. 58% of finance leaders said they need more employees with strong analytical skills.
“While many organizations are already using AI, we are still at the forefront of the AI revolution,” PYMNTS writes. “The numbers in our report represent the early fruits of that revolution. As applications of AI mature, the needs of all businesses, large and small, will continue to evolve. But one thing is clear: we are just beginning to realize AI's potential.”
