Microsoft Eyes $80B AI Investment This Fiscal Year

‘More than half of this total investment will be in the United States, reflecting our commitment to this country and our confidence in the American economy,’ says Microsoft President Brad Smith.

Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith has revealed that the tech giant plans to invest about $80 billion in data centers this fiscal year for training artificial intelligence models and deploying AI and cloud-based applications worldwide while touting the vendor’s extensive partner ecosystem.

Smith shared the figure in a Friday blog post that also called on the incoming Trump administration to help support the emerging market, where the Redmond, Wash.-based vendor has taken a leadership position. Microsoft’s fiscal year started July 1.

“More than half of this total investment will be in the United States, reflecting our commitment to this country and our confidence in the American economy,” Smith said.

Microsoft AI Spending

CRN has reached out to Microsoft for comment.

Smith said that Microsoft’s AI success “depends on a broad and competitive technology ecosystem” that includes its “longstanding” systems integrator and service provider partners.

The executive reiterated Microsoft’s goal to invest more than $35 billion to build AI and cloud data center infrastructure in 14 countries within three years in the blog post and said that AI will create jobs in “not just services but manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, government and every other part of the economy.”

Microsoft is also investing in training 2.5 million American students, workers and community members in 2025 with AI skills.

During Microsoft’s latest quarterly earnings report in October, the vendor revealed that its AI business is on track to surpass an annual run rate of $10 billion in its second fiscal quarter. Microsoft revealed during the quarterly earnings call that it spent about $20 billion during the quarter, which included finance leases.

Smith Addresses Trump Administration

In the post, Smith also called on the incoming Trump administration to continue work strengthening the American AI market that occurred under the president’s first term. Smith said that Trump’s 2019 executive order on AI “rightly focused on federal investments in AI research and making federal data and computing resources more accessible.”

“Five years later, President Trump and Congress should expand on these efforts to support advancing America’s AI leadership,” Smith said. “More funding for basic research at the National Science Foundation and through our universities is one good place to start.”

Smith asked Trump to avoid “heavy-handed regulations” that could slow U.S. AI companies in exporting AI worldwide and competing with Chinese counterparts. Smith points to China and Huawei’s success taking telecommunications equipment market share through government subsidies, innovation and exports to the developing world.

“The country instead needs a pragmatic export control policy that balances strong security protection for AI components in trusted data centers with an ability for U.S. companies to expand rapidly and provide a reliable source of supply to the many countries that are American allies and friends,” Smith said.