India must prioritise frontier AI research to drive innovation: Nadella

During his visit to India, Nadella announced strategic partnerships with the Government of India and industry leaders to advance cloud and AI transformation.



NEW DELHI: India must prioritise frontier research in artificial intelligence (AI) and develop foundational models to drive innovation, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said on Wednesday.

However, he noted that major investment is required to overcome the entry barrier and a single groundbreaking mathematical discovery can revolutionise the entire AI landscape.

“There is no reason why India can’t do frontier work, but you can even define frontier pretty unique. For example, I don’t think the last known big breakthrough in AI frontier has happened. I always say we are one mathematical breakthrough away from that entire edifice being thrown out and being going after something else,” said Nadella

During his visit to India, Nadella announced strategic partnerships with the Government of India and industry leaders to advance cloud and AI transformation. This comes on the heels of its plan to invest $3 billion in cloud and AI infrastructure in India over next two years, including establishment of new data centres.

Microsoft has partnered with RailTel to advance digital, cloud, and AI transformation in the Indian Railways and public sector space. As part of this five-year partnership, Microsoft will support RailTel in establishing an AI center of excellence (CoE).

The company has also joined forces with the Mahindra Group to transform automotive, farm and financial services with AI. Additionally, it has partnered with Apollo Hospitals to co-innovate, jointly develop products and drive digital transformation in the healthcare sector. The partnership will also focus on research in areas such as disease progression and genomics.

Furthermore, Microsoft has entered a strategic partnership with Bajaj Finance to enhance digital transformation and deliver seamless experiences for Bajaj Finance’s customers. The company has signed a MoU with India AI, a division of Digital India Corporation, to collaborate on advancing AI and emerging technologies in India.

Source: https://www.newindianexpress.com/business/2025/Jan/09/india-must-prioritise-frontier-ai-research-to-drive-innovation-nadella

Microsoft to invest $3 billion in India, boost AI, cloud infra

BENGALURU: Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced plans to invest $3 billion in India in cloud and AI infrastructure, including setting up new data centres over the next two years. He added the company is committed to training 10 million people with AI skills by 2030.
The $3-billion additional investment in India, Nadella said, would represent the single-largest expansion into the region. "The diffusion rate of AI in India is exciting. This is the golden age for systems when it comes to innovation," he told a crowd of over 3,000 developers who had gathered to listen to him in a massive exhibition centre in Bengaluru on Tuesday.

In his nearly 11 years as CEO, Nadella has transformed Microsoft with his bets on cloud computing and AI, and the infusion of a culture of collaboration, enabling the pioneering computing company to become the second in the world to touch $3 trillion in market capitalisation (the first was Apple).

A lot of Microsoft's work is today driven by its vast base of engineers in India. The company also sees India as an increasingly attractive market. "I had a chance to meet PM Modiji yesterday and it was fantastic. It's great to listen to his vision of how he wants to drive AI missions. It's the combination of the yojanas (schemes), the India Stack, the entrepreneurial energy in this country, and the demographics on both the consumer and business sides that are all coming together in a virtuous cycle," Nadella said.
Nadella said infrastructure today needs to be thought of differently from the traditional ways. "With infrastructure, there's a new formula for any country or company. I think of that formula as tokens per dollar per watt. Fundamentally, their (country or company) growth depends on how efficiently they can drive that equation," he said.


Tokens per dollar per watt is a measure of the efficiency of AI applications, essentially signifying how many tokens (units of information) can be generated per dollar spent on computing power, while also considering the energy consumption (measured in watts) required to produce those tokens. Essentially, it highlights the cost-effective and energy-efficient performance of an AI system.


This infra, Nadella said, needs to be the highest priority. And Microsoft, he said, is innovating in every layer of it. Microsoft, which counts Air India, PwC, and Biocon as customers in India, said it's copiloting South Asia's AI transformation with 800 customers and fivefold returns for every dollar the company invests in GenAI, with 70% of its clients seeing productivity benefits.

Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/india-business/microsoft-to-invest-3-billion-in-india-boost-ai-cloud-infra/articleshowprint/117035643.cms

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https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/info-tech/unlocking-data-that-is-trapped-in-silos/article26663386.ece (Accessed on April 1, 2019)

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