NEW DELHI (AP) — India hopes to garner $200 billion in investment for data centers over the next few years as it ramps up its ambitions to become a hub for artificial intelligence, the country’s electronics and information technology minister said Tuesday.
The investment underscores tech titans’ reliance on India as a key technology and talent base in the global race for AI dominance. For New Delhi, they bring high-value infrastructure and foreign capital to a level that can accelerate its digital transformation ambitions.
The push comes as governments around the world race to harness AI’s economic potential to deal with job disruption, regulation and the growing concentration of computing power in a few wealthy countries and companies.
“Today, India is seen as a trusted AI partner for countries in the Global South looking for open, affordable and development-focused solutions,” Ashwini Vaishnav told The Associated Press in an email interview, as New Delhi this week hosted a major AI Impact Summit, drawing at least 20 global leaders and a prominent figure from the tech industry.
In October, Google announced plans to invest $15 billion in India over the next five years to set up its first artificial intelligence center in the South Asian country. Two months later, Microsoft announced Asia’s largest investment of $17.5 billion to advance India’s cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure over the next four years.
Amazon has also committed to invest $35 billion in India by 2030 to expand its business, specifically targeting AI-driven digitization. The cumulative investments are part of the $200 billion investments that are in the pipeline and New Delhi hopes will flow.
Vaishnav said India’s pitch is that artificial intelligence must deliver measurable effects rather than remain high-tech.
“A credible AI ecosystem will attract investment and accelerate adoption,” he said, adding that a central pillar of India’s strategy to capitalize on the use of AI is infrastructure.
The government recently announced a long-term tax break for data centers as it hopes to provide policy certainty and attract global capital.
Vaishnav said the government already operates a shared computing facility with more than 38,000 graphics processing units, or GPUs, allowing startups, researchers and public institutions to access high-end computing without huge upfront costs.
“AI should not be exclusive. It should be widely accessible,” he said.
Alongside the infrastructure drive, India is supporting the development of sovereign-based AI models trained in Indian languages and local contexts. Some of these models meet global benchmarks and rival widely used large language models in some tasks, Vaishnav said.
According to Vaishnav, India is seeking a bigger role in shaping how AI is built and used globally because the country does not see itself as a “rule maker or rule taker,” but an active participant in setting practical, actionable standards.
“India will become a major provider of AI services in the near future,” he said, describing a “self-reliant but globally integrated” strategy in applications, models, chips, infrastructure and energy.
Investor confidence is another focus area for New Delhi as global tech funding becomes more cautious.
Vaishnav said the technology push is backed by implementation, pointing to the Indian government’s AI Mission program that emphasizes sector-specific solutions through public-private partnerships.
Governments are also talking about re-skilling their workforce as global concerns grow that AI could disrupt white-collar and technology jobs. New Delhi is scaling up AI education in universities, skill programs and online platforms to build a large AI-ready talent pool, the minister said.
Widespread 5G connectivity across the country and a young, tech-savvy population are expected to help accelerate AI adoption, he added.
Balancing innovation with safeguards has become a challenge as AI expands into sensitive areas such as governance, healthcare and finance.
Vaishnav outlined a four-pronged strategy that includes an enforceable global framework, reliable AI infrastructure, regulation of harmful misinformation and strong human and technical capacity to protect influence.
“The future of AI must be inclusive, distributed and focused on development,” he said.
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