Microsoft announced a series of artificial intelligence partnerships in India’s core sectors on Wednesday, a day after pledging to invest $3 billion in the country over the next two years as it steps up competition with rivals Google and Amazon. The tech giant’s chief executive Satya Nadella (pictured above) announced the deal with five major organizations including railways, healthcare, financial services, manufacturing and education. This includes an agreement with India’s Ministry of Electronics and IT, as part of which Microsoft will contribute to the ministry’s IndiaAI Mission Datasets platform by supporting data collection and synthetic generation. The company will also train 500,000 people in AI technology by 2026, and the two will also create an AI Center of Excellence, called AI Catalysts, to promote rural AI innovation and set up AI laboratories in 20 national skill training institutes. RailTel, a government-backed company, has entered into a five-year partnership with Microsoft to advance “digital, cloud and AI transformation” in Indian railways. Apollo Hospitals plans to develop an AI “copilot” for healthcare services. Bajaj Finance, India’s largest non-banking financial company, expects annual cost savings of $18 million by 2026 through AI implementation. Edtech startup Upgrad will work with Microsoft to build applications for using AI in the workplace. The push comes as Google and Amazon race to expand their AI offerings and court Indian businesses, and Nvidia strikes a deal to supply AI chips to India’s biggest companies. In October, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang announced a partnership with Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries to build AI infrastructure. The chip designer also signed deals with Tata Communications and Yotta Data Services to distribute thousands of its H100 chips. Google, which has been operating in India for more than two decades, recently introduced a new AI-powered tool for Indian merchants that allows them to establish a digital presence.
