Indonesia is Southeast Asia's biggest economy and has a population of around 280 million across its sprawling archipelago, with a growing demand for data centres and AI tech in the region.
Satya Nadella held talks with President Joko Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi, at Jakarta's presidential palace before delivering a keynote speech about AI in the Indonesian capital.
"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 the tech giant would provide AI training for hundreds of thousands of Indonesians.
"I'm very pleased to announce that we at Microsoft are going to train 2.5 million people by 2025 across the ASEAN region. In fact 840,000 right here in Indonesia alone," he said.
Microsoft said in a statement the investment would be over four years. Dharma Simorangkir, Microsoft Indonesia's president director, said it "sets a new milestone for Indonesia's digital landscape."
- Regional tour -
Nadella earlier told Jokowi the tech giant's pledge was the "single biggest investment value" in the 29-year history of its business in Indonesia, Minister of Communication and Informatics Budi Arie Setiadi said in a statement.
A Microsoft statement later confirmed it was the company's biggest investment in the country.
"The investment announced today will enable Microsoft to meet the growing demand for cloud computing services in Indonesia," it said.
Research by global consulting firm Kearney showed AI was poised to contribute $1 trillion to Southeast Asia's GDP by 2030, with Indonesia predicted to see more than a third of that, the statement said.
Budi told reporters Jakarta was lobbying Microsoft to open a research and development centre in Indonesia, including in the planned new capital Nusantara that is due to open from August.
"We offered several places: Bali, IKN (Nusantara)," he said.
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.
Nadella said last week sales in the January-to-March period rose by 17 percent from a year earlier to $61.9 billion, with net profit up 20 percent to $21.9 billion.
The embrace of AI has boosted sales of Microsoft's key cloud services such as Azure, which have become the core of its business under Nadella's leadership.
Nadella's visit comes just weeks after Apple CEO Tim Cook met Jokowi and president-elect Prabowo Subianto as the tech giant explores ways to diversify supply chains away from China.
Cook said Apple was looking at potentially investing in manufacturing in Indonesia.
Nadella is travelling on to Thailand and then Malaysia this week on a regional tour to promote Microsoft's AI tech.
Embattled French tech giant Atos says needs more cash
Paris (AFP) April 29, 2024 -
Struggling French tech giant Atos said on Monday it needs more cash than previously estimated to stay afloat and welcomes a government offer to acquire company activities linked to national security.
Atos -- which runs supercomputers for France's nuclear deterrent, holds contracts with the French army and is the IT partner for this year's Paris Olympics -- is sagging under almost five billion euros ($5.4 billion) of debt.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced on Sunday that he had sent a non-binding letter of intent to acquire the "sovereign activities" of Atos to prevent them from "falling under the ownership of foreign actors".
The activities include supercomputers, servers using artificial intelligence and quantic computing, and cybersecurity products.
"The (Atos) group welcomes this letter of intent, which would protect the sovereign strategic imperatives of the French state," the company said on Monday.
Atos said the proposal values the businesses at between 700 million and one billion euros.
Le Maire's announcement sent shares in Atos surging 14 percent after the Paris stock exchange opened.
They have tumbled by 70 percent since the start of the year.
Atos said it now needs 1.1 billion euros in cash "to fund the business over the 2024-25 period", up from a previous estimate of 600 million euros.
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