Microsoft to Inject $3.2 Billion Into Australian AI Market in Historic Investment

Microsoft, the company that has already invested in ChatGPT owner OpenAI, now plans to inject $3.2 billion into the Australian artificial intelligence (AI) market.

Indeed, companies are racing to invest in generative AI chatbot companies, and AI infrastructure and cloud computing are also not far behind in attracting investors’ attention. 

Microsoft Commits to Largest Investment in Australia

According to Bloomberg, Microsoft will invest nearly $3.2 billion in the Australian AI ecosystem throughout the next two years. Microsoft especially wants to expand its footprint in the country’s cloud computing and AI infrastructure.

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Microsoft already runs 20 data centers in Australia. It plans to build nine more through this investment, bringing the total number to 29. Lastly, Microsoft will also team up with the state of New South Wales to create the Microsoft Datacenter Academy.

Microsoft President Brad Smith said:

“This is our largest investment in Microsoft’s 40-year history in Australia and a testament to our commitment to the country’s growth and prosperity in the AI era,”

In September, Australia’s largest pension fund, AustralianSuper, invested $1.6 billion in the Vantage Data Center. Data centers support the infrastructure required to train and store AI models.

Also in September, Iliad Group, France’s largest telecommunications group, invested approximately $105 million to create a lab in Paris for AI research. In July 2023, the Japanese Venture Capitalist (VC) giant SoftBank allocated $100 million to establish a joint venture with the robotic warehouse company Symbotic.

The world’s highest-valued chipmaker, Nvidia, plans to establish AI factories with the electronic manufacturing company Foxconn.

Lastly, the ChatGPT parent OpenAI is eyeing an $86 billion valuation. If that materializes, OpenAI will have grown threefold in the past six months. 

Statista estimates that the global artificial intelligence market size will hit nearly $2 trillion by the end of the decade.

Learn more: Will AI Replace Humans?

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