iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Microsoft’s CEO Satya Nadella met the president of Indonesia on Apr.30, pledging a US $1.7 billion investment in artificial intelligence and cloud computing to help develop the country’s AI infrastructure.
Nadella held talks with President Joko Widodo, more popularly known as Jokowi, at Jakarta’s presidential palace before delivering a keynote speech about AI in the Indonesian capital, news agency AFP reported.
“The thing I am really excited to announce today is the expanded announcement of data centre investment, so $1.7 billion to bring the latest and greatest AI infrastructure to Indonesia,” Nadella told a crowd, adding data centres would be built in Indonesia soon.
“We are going to lead this wave in terms of the next generation of AI infrastructure that’s needed,” he said.
“Our mission ultimately is to empower every person and every organisation in Indonesia to take advantage of this next big AI wave.” He said Microsoft would provide AI training for 840,000 Indonesians.
Earlier, Nadella told Jokowi Microsoft would “invest significantly” in AI infrastructure and new cloud computing over the next four years, Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi said in a statement.
Microsoft has been hugely rewarded by investors since it aggressively pushed into rolling out generative AI, starting with its $13 billion partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, in 2023.
