Microsoft To Invest $2.9 Billion To Expand Japan’s AI Infrastructure

Microsoft on Tuesday unveiled plans to invest $2.9 billion over a span of two years to expand Japan’s artificial intelligence (AI), and  its cloud  infrastructure, joining a trend of major tech firms expanding internationally to advance AI development.

This significant investment, marking Microsoft’s largest in its 46-year history in Japan, will also be allocated towards training three million individuals in AI and establishing a Microsoft Research Asia lab in Tokyo.

Across the globe, server operators are expanding their data centres and cloud computing resources to accommodate the increasing demand for AI applications and workloads, particularly following the introduction of ChatGPT in late 2022.

Also Read: Microsoft To Invest $2.1 billion in Spain AI infrastructure

Amazon’s cloud division, for instance, is committing $10 billion to facilities in Mississippi and an additional $5.3 billion to projects in Saudi Arabia.

Meanwhile, Google is undertaking a $1 billion project to construct a data centre outside London.

Notably, Microsoft’s Azure, Google Cloud (a subsidiary of Alphabet), and Amazon Web Services hold the top three positions in the global cloud computing market.

Reuters