Microsoft Plans Invest $1.7 billion over the next four years in cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence (AI) in Indonesia, said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Tuesday (30/4). This is the largest single investment in the 29 year history of Microsoft’s existence in Indonesia.
Microsoft runs one of the world’s largest cloud computing operations and has made significant strides in the AI space by incorporating AI chatbots into its search engine, Bing.
According to its earnings report last Thursday, Microsoft Plans Invest profit rose 20 percent for the January-March period as the company tries to position itself as a leader in applying AI technology to make workplaces more productive.
“AI technology aims to bend the economic growth curve. “The overall target that we have together is that we treat this as a new input to create economic growth as an output,” said Nadella in Jakarta, the first stop on his trip to Southeast Asia.
Microsoft considers Southeast Asia a growing market and a potential location for developing more AI products. A study by Kearney, a global consulting firm, said AI could contribute nearly $1 trillion to Southeast Asia’s GDP by 2030, of which Indonesia is expected to gain $366 billion.
The investment announced Tuesday (30/1) will include AI training for 840 thousand people, in addition to support for Indonesia’s growing community of technology developers. Indonesia is the location of the third largest developer community in the Asia Pacific region after India and China.
More than 3.1 million developers in Indonesia use GitHub, Microsoft’s platform for software development, collaboration and innovation. It is projected to be one of the five major development communities on GitHub globally by 2026.
Indonesia, under the administration of President Joko Widodo, has emphasized development of the digital and information technology sector, with the aim of achieving the Golden Indonesia Vision 2045. This vision projects Indonesia to become one of the world’s five major economies with a GDP of up to $9 trillion, exactly a century after Indonesia’s independence from Dutch colonialism.
Nadella met President Jokowi on Tuesday at the Presidential Palace. During the meeting, Jokowi proposed building an AI research center in Indonesia, and a Microsoft data center based in Bali or the capital of the archipelago, said Minister of Communications and Information Technology Budi Arie Setiadi.
The Microsoft CEO’s visit to the region will start in Indonesia, followed by Thailand and Malaysia in the next two days.
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