Microsoft Opens Fourth Data Center In India

Silhouettes of laptop and mobile device users are visible next to the screen projection of the Microsoft logo in this illustration taken on March 28, 2018. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration

NEW DELHI, March 7 – Microsoft Corporation (MSFT.O) unveiled its fourth data center in India on Monday, capitalizing on rising digital consumption in one of its fastest growing markets.

Microsoft India chief Anant Maheshwari said the company is making long-term investments in the country, although he declined to confirm local media reports of a $2 billion price tag for the new hub.

“A public cloud data center is not a one-time investment, it is an ongoing investment that we have,” Maheshwari told Reuters. “Over the past two years, we have doubled capacity across our three existing data centers.”

According to research firm IDC, India’s total public cloud market will reach $10.8 billion by 2025.

The Indian government is pushing foreign tech companies to store more of their data locally, in what is seen as New Delhi’s attempt to achieve stricter oversight of big tech firms.

Maheshwari said that Microsoft continues to increase its workforce in India from 18,000 now “both during the pandemic and in the future.”

“We already serve over 340,000 companies in the country,” said Maheshwari.

The new data center is located in the southern Indian state of Telangana.

The company’s business model, which relies on partners building value-added services on top of its Azure cloud platform, has generated about $10 billion in business over the past five years, Maheshwari said.

Participants join the race in India. Key competitor Amazon announced in late 2020 that it would spend $2.8 billion to build its second data center in the country, and Adani Group last year announced plans to build six data center parks across the country.

Reporting by Munsif Vengattila in New Delhi; editing Jane Wardell

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