Industry Odisha Bureau, Sept 21: Microsoft has launched its India South Central cloud region in Hyderabad as part of its previously announced $20.5 billion investment commitment in India’s cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure. The company announced the launch at its AI infrastructure Summit in New Delhi on Monday.
The Hyderabad facility is Microsoft’s fourth cloud region in India after Pune, Chennai and Mumbai. The company said the new region is designed to support advanced AI workloads. It will also serve as a strategic hub for Asia and the Global South.
India South Central is already operational and features a three-zone architecture with independent power, cooling and networking infrastructure. Microsoft said its Indian data centre regions are now AI-enabled, using AI-capable hardware and high efficiency cooling systems.
Companies including Adani Group, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank and PB Pay have already signed up to use the new region.
The company said the region provides Azure services and will progressively receive additional cloud and AI capabilities, including Microsoft Foundry. It is also designed to support applicable requirements under India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Framework and sector specific requirements from the RBI and CERT-In.
Microsoft said the facility uses effectively zero water for cooling. The company also said more than 10 million Indians have been equipped with AI skills through its Elevate India initiative, towards its goal of reaching 20 million people by 2030.
Separately, Microsoft is part of the planned 3,600-km India-Southeast Asia submarine cable system connecting India, Malaysia and Singapore. The cable will have landings at Machilipatnam and South Chennai and is targeted to be operational in 2029.
