- Microsoft now operates four cloud regions in India, giving it the country’s largest hyperscale cloud presence and more local choice with enterprise-grade security, compliance and governance frameworks for the AI era.
- As part of early access, the region is already seeing strong demand from leading Indian enterprises, including Adani Group, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank and PB Pay.
- India has registered strong double-digit growth on Azure in the last two years. This momentum will accelerate as the new datacenter region comes online.
INDIA, August 6, 2026 – Microsoft today announced the general availability of its India South Central cloud region in Hyderabad, Telangana. This gives customers the choice to run eligible Microsoft Cloud services and workloads from Hyderabad, with the security, reliability and support of a fully operational Microsoft region. India South Central strengthens the country’s foundation for scalable and sovereign-ready AI.
Built for the demands of the AI era, it gives organizations more local choice to modernize critical systems, build new digital services, and turn AI ambition into measurable business impact, faster decisions, stronger customer outcomes and new ways of working with enterprise-grade security, compliance and governance, as services become available in the region over time. The new datacenter region comprises three Availability Zones built with a resilient design aligned to India’s regulatory and seismic-zone requirements to support mission critical workloads at scale.
“Whether it is a Frontier Firm already running AI at scale or an enterprise taking its first steps, the question we hear most often is: how do we move faster from experimenting with AI to creating durable business value with AI? That requires trusted infrastructure close to where data lives, teams work and decisions are made. The Microsoft India South Central datacenter region is a critical part of that foundation, backed by Microsoft’s $20.5 billion investment commitment to India’s cloud and AI future. Making India AI-first is about bringing together the scale to support growth, the skills to unlock value, the sovereignty organizations expect, and the security they depend on. We are not investing in infrastructure to keep up with demand. We are investing in India’s ability to set the pace for the world.”
Puneet Chandok, President, Microsoft India and South Asia
With India South Central, Microsoft now operates four cloud regions in India – Central India in Pune, South India in Chennai, West India in Mumbai and India South Central in Hyderabad – giving the company the largest hyperscale cloud presence in the country. The companyalso operates two datacenters in partnership with Jio, namely Jio India West and Jio India Central. The region builds on Microsoft’s long-term commitment to India’s digital and AI infrastructure, the US$3 billion investment announced in January 2025, followed by the US$17.5 billion investment announced in December 2025. The region is part of Microsoft’s global cloud infrastructure, which includes more than 80 regions in 34 countries, over 500 datacenters worldwide, over 800,000 kilometers of terrestrial and subsea fiber, and over 20 million miles (more than 32 million kilometers) of network cables — making it one of the largest, most trusted and secure cloud infrastructures in the world.
The launch comes as Microsoft Cloud and AI adoption continues to scale across the country, with Microsoft India registering strong double-digit growth on Azure over the last two years. More than 90 percent of NIFTY 100 companies in our analysis are using Microsoft 365 Copilot. Recent Microsoft 365 Copilot momentum across leading ITeS companies like Infosys, TCS, Wipro and LTM, which have collectively signed up for more than 400,000 Copilot seats, also signals that enterprise AI adoption is moving from pilots to production-scale deployments across both technology and industrial sectors, thereby driving Frontier Firm transformation across Indian enterprises. Globally, Microsoft 365 Copilot has crossed 30 million paid seats as disclosed in FY 26 Q4 results.
“Microsoft’s fourth India cloud region marks a decisive shift in how hyperscale capacity is being localized for the AI era. With enterprise AI adoption moving from pilots to production at pace; proximity, sovereignty and resilience are no longer differentiators but baseline requirements. A three-availability-zone region in Hyderabad, built with sovereign-ready controls and next-generation zero-water cooling, addresses the twin pressures on Indian enterprises and regulated industries: scaling AI workloads while meeting rising expectations on data governance and environmental responsibility. The demand signal is clear. IDC forecasts India’s public cloud services spending to reach US$45.7 billion by 2030, growing at 22.2% annually, with AI spending expanding at double that rate. This deepening of in-country hyperscale infrastructure will accelerate enterprise modernization and cement India as one of the most strategically important cloud markets in Asia/Pacific.”
Dr William Lee, Senior Research Director, IDC
EARLY ACCESS CUSTOMERS
The India South Central region has seen strong early demand from customers across financial services, digital platforms and diversified enterprises. Organizations are leveraging the region to strengthen operational resilience, support business continuity, expand cloud capacity for mission-critical applications, and build a trusted foundation for future AI innovation.
“Technology partnerships create lasting value by enabling long-term transformation. Our collaboration with Microsoft continues to advance the Adani Group’s digital transformation. As one of the early customers of Microsoft’s newest India datacenter in Hyderabad, we have access to trusted infrastructure built for scale, resilience and evolving business needs. Investments like these will accelerate enterprise innovation and support India’s next phase of digital growth.”
Srushti Adani, Director, Adani Digital Lab
“Microsoft India’s South Central Azure region strengthens our digital transformation efforts by enhancing data residency, resilience, and scalability while accelerating cloud and AI adoption. We value our partnership with Microsoft to deliver secure AI-driven financial services and look forward to leveraging the Hyderabad region.”
Mudit Mehrish, Chief Information Officer, Bajaj Finance Ltd
“The launch of Microsoft’s new South Central India region in Hyderabad is a significant milestone in HDFC Bank’s Azure cloud journey. Having a dedicated DR region perfectly complements our Central India footprint, strengthening our business continuity and cross-cloud resilience. With its ample capacity and access to the latest compute capabilities, it will support our efforts to accelerate our AI initiatives and scale high-performance workloads ensuring our banking services remain highly available, secure, and future-ready for our customers.”
Atish Bhanushali, Senior Vice President II/ Head Cloud Infra, HDFC Bank
”At PB Pay, trust is the foundation of every product we build and every customer we serve. Early access to Microsoft’s new India South Central region lets us scale AI-led innovation responsibly – on enterprise-grade infrastructure that’s closer to our customers and aligned with India’s regulatory landscape. It’s a genuine catalyst: we can move faster, build with confidence, and deliver secure, compliant experiences at the pace our market demands.”
Harsh Vardhan Masta, CEO and Whole Time Director, PB Pay
Learn more about the Microsoft Cloud services such as Azure and Microsoft 365 available in the India South Central region.
COMMITMENT TO ENVIRONMENT AND COMMUNITIES
Microsoft is committed to building and operating its cloud infrastructure responsibly. Through our Datacenter Community Pledge, we are committed to contributing to a sustainable future, advancing community prosperity and well-being, and operating responsibly as a good neighbor in the communities where we build and operate.
Globally, Microsoft works to procure carbon-free energy for its datacenters, and is committed to being carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030. The company is proud to share that India South Central will feature enhanced mechanical cooling with air-cooled chillers, which reflects Microsoft’s move toward next-generation datacenters that consume zero water for cooling.
In February 2026, Microsoft announced that it matched 100% of its annual global electricity consumption with renewable energy, a key milestone on our path to being carbon negative by 2030. We reached this milestone by contracting roughly 40 gigawatts of new renewable energy across 26 countries, helping bring new clean power onto the grids where we operate. In India, Microsoft has so far entered into multiple multi-year Corporate Power Purchase Agreements (CPPAs) and other long-term agreements related to the development of more than 1000 megawatts of new solar, wind and hybrid energy projects, adding additional renewable energy capacity to the electricity grid. Over 630 MW of those assets are already in operation. Microsoft’s agreements in India involve partnerships with leading developers such as ReNew and Amplus. As part of the agreement with ReNew, they will direct approximately US $15 million of revenue from the contract towards a community fund to support initiatives focusing on women’s livelihoods and economic empowerment, energy access, rural electrification, environmental remediation and water quality improvement, and other concerns of communities disproportionately impacted by pollution and climate change.
Microsoft also continues to invest in India’s digital skills. The company is committed to equipping 20 million Indians with AI skills by 2030 and has already trained 5.6 million people since January 2025 — helping more than 125,000 individuals access new jobs or entrepreneurial opportunities. Microsoft will continue working with local partners, customers and communities as the region scales.