Piyush Goyal Meets Microsoft India Chief To Discuss Data Centres, AI Infrastructure Expansion

New Delhi, Sep 12 (KNN) Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal met Microsoft India and South Asia President Puneet Chandok and discussed expanding data centre capacity and advancing the India AI Mission as India seeks to strengthen its artificial intelligence infrastructure.

In a post on X, the Office of Piyush Goyal said, “India is emerging as a preferred destination for global tech investment. Discussed expanding data centre capacity and advancing the 'India AI Mission' to make India a trusted global partner in AI.” 

The meeting comes as Microsoft expands its cloud and AI infrastructure in India. In December 2025, the company announced plans to invest USD 17.5 billion in India between 2026 and 2029 in cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling and operations, in addition to an earlier USD 3 billion commitment, ANI reported.

In August, Microsoft announced the general availability of its India South Central cloud region in Hyderabad, taking its operational cloud regions in India to four.

IndiaAI Mission Expands Computing Capacity

The discussions also come amid the government's push to expand domestic AI computing infrastructure under the IndiaAI Mission, approved in March 2024 with an outlay of Rs 10,371.92 crore over five years.

The mission covers computing infrastructure, indigenous AI models, datasets, startup support and skills. More than 38,000 GPUs have been onboarded under its common compute facility, with the government planning to add another 20,000 GPUs to expand AI computing capacity for startups, researchers and academic institutions.

Goyal Meets Uruguay Foreign Minister

Separately, Goyal met Uruguay's Foreign Affairs Minister Mario Lubetkin and discussed strengthening bilateral trade and investment ties and taking forward India's partnership with MERCOSUR.

“Discussed ways to deepen India-Uruguay trade & investment ties, build on our economic complementarities and take the India-MERCOSUR partnership forward,” Goyal said in a post on X.

India has an existing preferential trade agreement with MERCOSUR, a South American trade bloc.

(KNN Bureau)