Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Meta: Why big techs are investing billions in their new favourite destination — India

India is the new favourite destination of big tech companies to invest.

In the last 48 hours alone, India has secured $52 billion worth of investments from Microsoft and Amazon, underscoring the country's growing importance in the global AI landscape amid the Centre's push for artificial intelligence.

Not just Microsoft and Amazon, tech giants like Google and Intel have also pledged investments in India over the past few weeks.

Here is a look at all the tech firms that have invested in India in recent times.

$68 billion investment from Amazon, Microsoft, Google

India has seen investment pledges worth around $67.5 billion in recent days, with Amazon, Microsoft and Google vowing to build the nation's AI infrastructure.

On 10 December, Amazon pledged a massive $35 billion investment in India by 2030, seeking to expand exports, create an additional one million jobs, and build on AI in the country.

“This investment will focus on business expansion as well as three strategic pillars: AI-driven digitisation, export growth, and job creation,” Amazon said in a statement.

This announcement came a day after Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and pledged to invest $17.5 billion in ramping up AI and cloud infrastructure in India. As part of its plan, Microsoft would seek to enhance its data centre capacity, train the local workforce and build sovereign tech capabilities. The spending represents Microsoft’s largest investment in Asia to date.

In October, Google's parent company, Alphabet, said it would invest $15 billion in India to build an AI data hub in Andhra Pradesh. The facility in Vishakapatnam will be part of Google's global network of AI centres spread across 12 countries.

“It's the largest AI hub that we are going to be investing in anywhere in the world, outside of the United States,” Thomas Kurian, the CEO of Google Cloud, had said, announcing the investment.

Intel signs semiconductor deal

Intel Corp, one of the leading chipmakers worldwide, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Tata Group on 8 December to explore a collaboration aimed at advancing semiconductor and systems manufacturing, packaging, and the AI compute market in India.

Tata Group, in a statement on the day, described the move as a key step towards strengthening India's domestic semiconductor ecosystem.

Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan met PM Modi a day after, on 9 December, to discuss accelerating AI adoption in India, along with Satya Nadella and Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar.

Apple invests billions

Apple has invested billions of dollars in India this year through its vendors, even as Trump threatens tariffs on companies setting up manufacturing plants outside the US.

Apple supplier Foxconn announced in May that it will invest $1.5 billion in India for new component plants in Tamil Nadu, aiming to boost iPhone manufacturing.

Chief Economic Adviser V. Anantha Nageswaran, on 12 December, said Apple is planning to build two major factories near Bangalore and Chennai, with a total employment capacity of 100,000 workers in a manufacturing push.

OpenAI, Meta open office

ChatGPT's parent company, OpenAI, announced in August that it will open its first office in India, in New Delhi, later this year. The company has already begun hiring people for various roles, signalling a deepening push in its second-largest market by numbers.

Earlier in February, Meta also announced that it would open a new office in Bengaluru, hiring engineers and AI experts as part of its push into artificial intelligence.

Why India is becoming an AI hotspot

According to a report by CNBC, India fares better than most other countries when it comes to building data centres — a key component to enhance AI infrastructure.

Traditional Asia Pacific markets, such as Japan, Australia, China, and Singapore, have already matured and have limited capacity to provide land for large data centres. India, on the other hand, has abundant spaces available for the same.

Additionally, India's power costs are lower than those of European countries, giving it an edge over nations like the UK.

India offers an unmatched combination of scale and a relatively forgiving regulatory stance, compared with some other markets in Asia and Europe.

A mix of these factors makes India an attractive destination for big techs.