After Nvidia and Apple, Microsoft announces major investments in Indonesia

Microsoft is investing USD 1.7 billion to build artificial intelligence infrastructure in Indonesia.

Here's What We Know

Following a meeting with President Joko Widodo in Jakarta on Tuesday, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the investment, which is expected to last for four years. The company also promised to help train 2.5 million people in Southeast Asia in AI skills, including 840,000 in Indonesia.

The Microsoft executive is on a three-country tour of Southeast Asia. This region has become a centre of gravity after the deterioration of relations between the US and China. For example, before Nadella, Jensen Huang of Nvidia and Tim Cook of Apple visited the country.

"The intelligence revolution is going to be the next big bend in the GDP growth curve," Nadella told hundreds of attendees at a corporate event in Jakarta, including software developers, ministers and CEOs.

The company is betting on generative artificial intelligence technologies to regain leadership and sees Asia as a major market and talent pool. In 2021, it unveiled an initiative to boost economic growth in Indonesia, including the establishment of the company's first data centre in the country.

Source: Bloomberg