Microsoft’s India and South Asia head Puneet Chandok has ‘good news’ for company’s employees in India. The company’s India operations will not be impacted by the latest round of job cuts at Microsoft. When asked about the reported Microsoft layoffs, Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India and South Asia, told Hindu Businessline, “No, not in India.” “We are engaged in so many projects. In fact, for all of India, more jobs are being created,” Chandok added.
CNBC recently reported that Microsoft is cutting more jobs. “Microsoft is cutting a small percentage of jobs across departments, based on performance,” said the report. Microsoft has confirmed the job cuts. “At Microsoft we focus on high-performance talent,” a Microsoft spokesperson said in an email to CNBC on Wednesday. “We are always working on helping people learn and grow. When people are not performing, we take the appropriate action.”
Microsoft’s latest round of job cuts are reported to affect less than 1% of employees. The number is lower compared to the company’s downsizing exercises in the last two years. In early 2023, Microsoft cut 10,000 jobs. In January 2024, three months after completing the $75.4 billion Activision Blizzard acquisition, Microsoft’s gaming unit shed 1,900 jobs.
Microsoft announces $3 billion investment in AI and cloud expansion in India
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella was in India recently as part of Microsoft’s AI India Tour. Nadella announced that Microsoft will invest $3 billion to expand its cloud computing and artificial intelligence capabilities in India. Nadella said the USD 3 billion investment in India would be the “single-largest expansion” done in the country. “The diffusion rate of AI in India is exciting.”
Speaking to the media at the event, Chandok said that the $3 billion investment announced by Nadella will be on building tech, infrastructure and AI capacity and also on building the human capital in this country. “In the last 12 months Microsoft has been a copilot to making AI a reality in India, taking it from boardrooms to classrooms, commerce to communities, and finance to farmers. Today’s announcement strengthens our belief in India’s potential and our resolve to equip the country with the resources and future-ready skills needed to excel in the global marketplace. We will continue to use AI to unlock possibilities for the next few decades and ensure communities across the country have access to the compute they need to prosper in the AI era,” Chandhok said.
Microsoft currently operates three data centre regions in India and is set to launch a fourth by the year 2026. Microsoft provides its cloud computing services under the Azure brand name. It has over 60 Azure regions comprising more than 300 data centres.