Global tech giants line up investments, tieups in AI space

Global technology leaders Google, Nvidia and Microsoft marked the AI Impact Summit being held in India with a flurry of big-ticket investment and partnership announcements spanning the entire AI stack including data infrastructure, cloud, models and applications.

Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet, laid out an expansive road map for India's AI future, announcing fresh commitments in infrastructure, skilling, public-sector partnerships and scientific research. Google is advancing its previously announced $15 billion AI hub in Visakhapatnam and unveiled the India-America Connect initiative. This will establish new subsea cable routes boosting AI connectivity among the US, India and other parts of the southern hemisphere.

On the research front, Google announced a new $30 million Google.org AI for the Science Impact Challenge to support global researchers using AI to drive scientific breakthroughs, from quantum computing to extreme weather prediction.


Nvidia said it is partnering Indian cloud providers Yotta, Larsen & Toubro and E2E Networks to build large-scale "AI factories."

ET had reported on Monday that Nvidia will anchor Asia's first DGX Cloud supercluster within Yotta's infrastructure under a four-year contract valued at about $1 billion. Yotta is also investing $2 billion to deploy 20,000 of Nvidia's latest Blackwell B300 AI chips.

L&T's data centre arm, L&T Vyoma, said it aims to build "India's largest gigawatt-scale AI factory," joining conglomerates such as Reliance Industries, Adani Group, Tata Group and Bharti Airtel in ramping up digital infrastructure bets.

The Adani Group, on Monday, outlined a $100 billion plan to build sovereign AI and data infrastructure over the next decade.

Supportive government policies, including a 20-year tax holiday for cloud companies, have encouraged global companies to make long-term bets. Microsoft, which has already committed $17.5 billion to India, said it will invest $50 billion by the end of decade to expand AI access across the Global South.