Satya Nadella praises India Stack, says rate of technology diffusion is the winner in AI era

Speaking during his India visit here in the national capital, themed 'Leading in the New Age of AI', Nadella said that what makes the country exceptional is not any single digital innovation, but the synergy of its entire technological foundation.

"One of the things that India has done very uniquely is somehow brought together a virtuous cycle from the policies, the programs, the technology stack and the Indian market," he said, noting that the private sector's full participation across payments, healthcare, and insurance has strengthened the ecosystem.

"It's tremendous to see that virtuous cycle, it's not about any one thing," he said at the New Delhi event.

"I had a chance to talk with the Prime Minister yesterday. One thing that India has done very uniquely is somehow brought together a virtuous cycle from the policies, the programs, the technology stack and the Indian market. It's the private sector participating fully. Whether it's in payments, whether it's in healthcare, whether it's in insurance, it's tremendous to see that that virtuous cycle, it's not about any one thing."

Pivoting to artificial intelligence as an emerging technology, Nadella noted that adoption speed, rather than technological origin, will determine which countries and companies gain an advantage in the AI era.

"I'm a firm believer that ultimately, when it comes to new technology, the rate of diffusion is the winner," he said.

Citing academic work on technological waves, Nadella stressed that success has historically belonged not only to the creators of breakthrough innovations but also to those who adopt them fastest.

"In fact, people who have studied historical technological waves and said which countries, which companies, which communities got ahead were not people who created the leading tech -- were really people who adopted the leading tech the fastest to create more leading tech."

He added that, at present, nations worldwide are starting from a level playing field.

"It's not like the models, 1100 models that I talked about are all available to every Indian organisation, as they are to every worldwide organisation."

Nadella welcomed India's decision to anchor its upcoming global AI summit on the theme of "Impact."

Responding to concerns that AI discourse often sidelines humans, Nadella agreed that preserving human agency is essential for AI deployment.

"Thinking about how to interject humans in the loop with the agency and the ambition is going to be one of the bigger design issues," he said. Without solving this, "we will all be rate-limited in deploying any of this."

On the question of technological sovereignty, a key concern for governments, Nadella argued for a flexible, portfolio-based strategy rather than a single rigid model.

For India, he said, Microsoft provides a spectrum of options: the public cloud, public cloud with sovereign controls, private cloud configurations, and local partnerships such as the one with Jio."So the bottom line is, there's a menu," he summarised.

Still, Nadella expressed optimism that India can lead globally in crafting a continually evolving sovereignty stack across semiconductor, model, and application layers.

"You're doing things in the semiconductor layer, you're doing things in the model layer, you're doing in the app layer, that will continue to grow. And so that means every year, every day, there will be more options," he said, pointing to India.

Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella announced on Tuesday that the company will invest USD 17.5 billion in India to support the country's rapidly expanding artificial intelligence ecosystem, and to drive AI diffusion at population scale.

The announcement followed Satya Nadella's meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during which the two leaders discussed the country's AI roadmap and growth priorities. Nadella called it Microsoft's "largest investment in Asia." (ANI)