Microsoft has formally launched its India South Central cloud region in Hyderabad, expanding its domestic cloud footprint to four regions and positioning the new facility for large-scale artificial intelligence and mission-critical workloads.
The Hyderabad region operates across three availability zones and is designed to provide resilience for organisations running critical applications. Microsoft said the architecture is aligned with applicable regulatory and seismic requirements in India, while giving customers additional options for data residency, continuity and governance.
The company said the region is now live with a broad set of Azure services, with more cloud and AI capabilities scheduled to be added over the coming months. It is also intended to support Microsoft Foundry and other advanced AI services as capacity expands.
Puneet Chandok, president of Microsoft India and South Asia, said at the Microsoft AI Infrastructure Summit in New Delhi that the Hyderabad facility was built for advanced AI workloads and would serve as a strategic hub for Asia and the Global South. Microsoft also said its data centre regions across the country are now AI-enabled, combining specialised hardware, cooling systems and the platform infrastructure needed to run advanced models.
India South Central joins Microsoft’s Central India region in Pune, South India region in Chennai and West India region in Mumbai. Microsoft’s Azure region list identifies Hyderabad as India South Central and shows Central India as its paired region for disaster-recovery planning.
The Hyderabad expansion forms part of Microsoft’s $20.5 billion investment commitment to India, comprising a $3 billion investment announced in January 2025 and a further $17.5 billion commitment announced in December 2025. The company has linked that spending to cloud capacity, AI infrastructure and skills development.
The launch comes as data-centre investment accelerates across the country alongside demand for computing capacity needed to train and run AI systems. A Boston Consulting Group study cited by Microsoft estimates that India’s data-centre build-out could generate $140 billion to $200 billion in economic output through 2030. Microsoft said its infrastructure is intended to serve enterprises, start-ups and public-sector organisations.
Microsoft said Adani Group, Bajaj Finserv, HDFC Bank and PB Pay have signed up to use the new region. The company said local capacity would allow eligible cloud and AI workloads to be deployed closer to users and operations while supporting security, compliance and sovereignty requirements.
The region expands Microsoft’s Sovereign Public Cloud foundation in India. The company said its cloud regions provide capabilities aligned with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology guidelines and are designed to help customers address requirements under the Digital Personal Data Protection framework, as well as sector-specific expectations from the Reserve Bank of India and CERT-In. Microsoft stressed that customers remain responsible for determining which rules apply to their workloads.
Capabilities expected to become available as services are rolled out include Azure confidential computing, Customer Lockbox and Azure Key Vault. These are intended to give organisations additional controls over data protection, encryption keys and Microsoft’s operational access, particularly for sensitive workloads.
Microsoft also highlighted the cooling design of the Hyderabad region, saying high-efficiency mechanical systems enable effectively zero water use for cooling. The company has tied the design to its broader 2030 sustainability goals, which include becoming carbon negative, water positive and zero waste.
Alongside the infrastructure launch, Microsoft said its AI-skilling programmes have reached more than 10 million people in India, halfway towards a target of 20 million by 2030. It also operates a 600-hour data centre training programme with Young India Skills University in Telangana aimed at preparing students for infrastructure and operations roles.
Jitin Prasada, Minister of State for Commerce and Industry and Electronics and Information Technology, said the new region would strengthen the digital infrastructure required to support the IndiaAI Mission and expand the capacity available to developers, enterprises and public institutions.
