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Microsoft on Monday formally launched its fourth India cloud region, in Hyderabad, as part of its USD 20.5 billion investment commitment to the country's digital and AI infrastructure. The India South Central region, which became generally available on August 6, joins the company's existing regions in Pune, Chennai and Mumbai. The Hyderabad facility uses effectively zero water for cooling, relying on air-cooled chillers instead of traditional water-based systems, Microsoft India and South Asia President Puneet Chandok said. He noted that the country has about 2 GW of data centre capacity, which is set to rise to 6-7 GW by 2035, with over USD 100 billion in investments already committed. India would emerge as an AI infrastructure hub not just for itself but for Asia and the Global South, Chandok said. In a video message, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said the new region would give organisations in India, and more broadly Asia, more capacity, greater resilience and m
Artificial Intelligence is poised to create more opportunities than it disrupts, and Indian engineers must shift their focus from job security fears of collaborating with the technology, a senior Microsoft India executive has said. Rajiv Kumar, Managing Director and President of Microsoft India Development Center (IDC), in a blog post on Thursday, said the rapid evolution of technology is shrinking the lifespan of technical skills, making continuous learning and adaptability crucial for the workforce. Citing the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025, which surveyed over 1,000 employers across 22 industry clusters and 55 economies, Kumar noted that 39 per cent of core job skills are expected to change by 2030. In India specifically, an estimated 63 per cent of the workforce will need significant upskilling or reskilling by the same year. "Virtually every major technology wave in history has ultimately created more opportunities than it destroyed... The real question is n
Unmetered intelligence, human-supervised 'digital colleagues' and continuous skilling as the key safeguard amid big shifts will shape an AI-rewired future, Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India and South Asia has said outlining his top predictions. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella during his visit to India earlier this month had announced plans to invest USD 17.5 billion here to help build infrastructure and sovereign capabilities for the country's AI-first future - the bold commitment marking the tech giant's largest investment ever in Asia. Chandok said AI has moved beyond hype, delivering real impact today. "...the next phase will be defined by how responsibly, inclusively, and thoughtfully we scale it," Chandok told PTI. His headline predictions for the rearranging world and frontier AI include intelligence moving from being scarce to abundant, with compute increasingly translating directly into cognition for organisations, in an era of "unmetered intelligence". AI 'agents' wi
IT giant Microsoft India has reported a 38.66 per cent rise in its profit to Rs 1,245.18 crore for the financial year ended March 31, 2025, according to its regulatory filing shared by market intelligence firm Tofler on Monday. The company had posted a profit of Rs 898 crore in the financial year (FY) 2024. Its revenue from operations increased by 27.44 per cent to Rs 28,754.77 crore during FY25 from Rs 22,561.91 crore a year ago. An email query sent to Microsoft India on its financial performance elicited no reply. The total revenue surged 28 per cent to Rs 29,303 crore. "Microsoft Corporation (India) Private Limited...reported its revenues for the financial year 2024-25 as Rs 29,303 crore, a 28 per cent jump since the last financial year. The company's total expenses for the fiscal year were reported as Rs 27,624 crore," Tofler said. The major expense component of the company is cost royalty, which increased by about 29 per cent on a year-over-year basis to Rs 20,294.13 crore i
Microsoft India President Puneet Chandok has termed the country one of the most exciting markets for technology and AI, underlining the company's commitment to India and belief in economic ties that power global growth. Chandok, President of Microsoft India and South Asia, told PTI in an interview that while AI now writes 30 per cent of the company's code, a massive "tech debt" remains on the supply side in the industry, one that requires more engineers, software and applications as the company pushes to build for the future. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella had, in April this year, said as much as 30 per cent of the Redmond, Washington-headquartered tech giant's code is now written by artificial intelligence, or AI. Chandok described India as "one of the most exciting markets in the world for technology and AI". "We, as Microsoft, are committed to India and we want to move the country forward," he said. As a multinational organisation with extensive footprint worldwide, the company se