JAKARTA: Microsoft’s chief executive met with Indonesia’s president on Tuesday, pledging a $1.7 billion investment in artificial intelligence and cloud computing to support develop artificial intelligence infrastructure in the archipelago.
Indonesia is Southeast Asia’s largest economy, with some 280 million people in the immense archipelago, and demand for data centers and artificial intelligence technologies is growing in the region.
Satya Nadella held talks with President Joko Widodo, better known as Jokowi, at the presidential palace in Jakarta, after which he delivered a keynote speech on artificial intelligence in the Indonesian capital.
“What I’m excited to announce today is a broader data center investment announcement of $1.7 billion to bring the latest and greatest artificial intelligence infrastructure to Indonesia,” Nadella told the crowd, adding that data centers will soon be built in Indonesia data.
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“We will lead this wave in terms of the next generation of AI infrastructure needed,” he said.
“Our mission is ultimately to enable every person and every organization in Indonesia to benefit from the next massive wave of artificial intelligence.”
He said the tech giant will provide artificial intelligence training to hundreds of thousands of Indonesians.
“I’m delighted to announce that by 2025, at Microsoft, we will have trained 2.5 million people across the ASEAN region. In Indonesia alone, it will be 840,000 people,” he said.
– Regional tour –
Earlier, Nadella told Jokowi that the tech giant would “invest significantly” in artificial intelligence infrastructure and fresh cloud computing over the next four years, Communications and Information Technology Minister Budi Arie Setiadi said in a statement.
The Microsoft chief called it the “largest single investment” in the 29-year history of its operations in the country, Budi said.
Microsoft has been hugely rewarded by investors since it aggressively pushed the adoption of generative AI, starting with a $13 billion partnership with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, in 2023.
Nadella said January-March sales rose 17 percent from a year earlier to $61.9 billion and net income rose 20 percent to $21.9 billion.
The operate of artificial intelligence has boosted sales of key cloud services such as Azure, which under Nadella’s leadership have become the core of Microsoft’s business.
Nadella’s visit comes just weeks after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Jokowi and President-elect Prabowo Subianto as the tech giant explores ways to diversify its supply chains beyond China.
Cook said Apple is considering potential investments in manufacturing in the country.
Nadella is heading to Thailand this week and then Malaysia on a regional tour to promote his artificial intelligence technology.
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