San Francisco: A renewed focus on developer-friendly features for Windows—one of the world’s largest operating systems with over 1.4 billion users—could be key for Microsoft to strengthen its influence among India’s developer community, a country that has historically been its stronghold and is expected to become the largest base for coders and app builders by 2030.
On Tuesday, Microsoft announced a host of developer features for its Windows OS, alongside seven new artificial intelligence (AI) models, a new security initiative, in-house chips and an agentic operating system (OS) designed for future AI-first devices. At the centre of it was chairman and chief executive Satya Nadella’s pitch to woo developers back into the company’s Windows and Azure cloud ecosystems—which the $3.3-trillion Big Tech giant believes is critical in the AI race in the Silicon Valley.
Each of these initiatives was made available for previews and early access to developers worldwide, with India among the first countries in the list. Top company executives that Mint spoke with said Microsoft’s new AI models support Hindi as a language among 15 globally, and its Anthropic-like cyber security initiative, M-Dash (multi-model agentic scanning harness), is also being previewed in India. Developers at the company’s Build conference in San Francisco on Tuesday sounded upbeat on Microsoft’s AI push.
Easier for developers
Surya Kukkapalli, an Indian-origin founder of California-based AI physical therapy assistant startup Revora, said that Microsoft’s developer tools “have made it significantly easier for developers without extensive resources to build applications across foundational models from one device—making the ecosystem supportive for early-stage startup founders to build on.”
Vasu Jakkal, corporate vice-president for security at Microsoft, said that the company expects India’s developer ecosystem to play key global roles in its cutting-edge products too—and not just for early-stage ventures. “We have vast bases of small and medium businesses in India, and even large businesses have a strong knowledge of the real threats on ground. We will be working closely with developers in India to build upon our M-Dash AI security platform, and bring it to a larger ecosystem of companies as we learn more and build more,” she told Mint.
Microsoft was one of the first Silicon Valley giants to set up an office in India. The company incorporated its India presence in July 1988, and started operations out of a solitary Hyderabad office. Data from market intelligence platform Tofler said Microsoft India earned ₹29,302.60 crore ($3.38 billion) in annual operating revenue in FY25. As of December 2025, Microsoft employed over 22,000 people across its offices in India.
Like Kukkapalli, Microsoft’s developer platform GitHub projected last year that by 2030, India will become the world’s largest developer ecosystem. Now, experts believe that the new tools will help the company make a renewed pitch to lure developers back into its ecosystem—at a time when key rivals Anthropic, Google and OpenAI have each expanded their developer ecosystems for AI in India, over the past three years.
Mature approach
“Tools such as the ‘autopilot’ agent that Nadella showcased, as well as the fine tweaks to Windows, including making it more compatible with rival platforms such as Apple’s Macs, all show that Microsoft is taking a mature, measured approach toward AI innovation—rather than simply chasing moonshot goals of massive frontier models. It is what Microsoft needs in countries like India, given its capabilities with Windows and Azure Cloud,” said Jim Mercer, program vice-president for developer operations at tech consultancy firm International Data Corp (IDC).
Kashyap Kompella, AI analyst and founder of tech consultancy firm RPA2AI Research, said that the push for developer adoption of AI on Windows is unsurprising. “We saw Google double down on developer focus in India last year, and over the past year, both Anthropic and OpenAI have expanded their developer initiatives—including giving them access to credits, or offering resources to build on their ecosystems. For Microsoft, this would mean ceded ground to key rivals—it has for long had a strong footing for developer relationships in India. This year, it is only correcting its course. Whether developers are convinced or not remains to be seen,” he said.
Satya Nadella, himself Indian origin and at the helm of Microsoft for over 12 years, struck a confident note as he wrapped up his keynote. “Our goal is never to build tech for tech's sake… We can use this next wave to unlock opportunities for developers, scientists and enterprises in every community. Our job is to make this happen—that’s our north star,” he said.
The writer is in San Francisco on Microsoft’s invitation.