Microsoft to spend $80 billion in fiscal 2025 on AI data centers

According to a post on the company’s blog, the tech giant plans to build AI-enabled data centers “to train AI models and deploy AI and cloud applications around the world.” Of the $80 billion promised, more than half will be spent in the United States, according to Microsoft vice president and president Brad Smith.

TechCrunch recalls that in April Microsoft and OpenAI were in talks to build a data center that would house an artificial intelligence supercomputer called Stargate. Construction of the center is estimated to cost more than $100 billion.

As Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella wrote in the annual report on the company’s official website: “This year we’ve moved from talking about artificial intelligence to helping our customers translate it into real results.”

He highlighted that the corporation has achieved a lot:

• Company Coles generates 1.6 billion daily forecasts using AI in 850 Australian stores, ensuring every customer finds what they need.
• Company Unilever run thousands of simulations using AI in the time it would take to perform dozens of laboratory experiments, accelerating the development of your products.
• Developers of the largest private bank in Brazil Itau write code more efficiently with the help of our peer developer GitHub Copilot.
• Khan Academy does it more accessible training for students and helps teachers plan more creative lessons using our little Phi language model.
• Aquatic farmers in Indonesia increase productivity thanks to an application created using the Azure OpenAI service, as well as Azure IoT.
• Street vendors in Kenya for the first time gained access to loans thanks to M-Kopa, a social enterprise that uses Azure ML for forecasting.
• Corporate clients and their employees around the world, from Amgen and Disney to Finastra and Vodafone are using Microsoft 365 Copilot to become more creative and productive.

And the company will continue to actively support companies in different countries. To this end, in particular, it is working with Blackrock and MGX to create a global investment fund that will provide up to $100 billion in additional financing for AI infrastructure and supply chain.

Financially, Microsoft also had a “record” year. Annual revenue exceeded $245 billion, up 16% year over year, and operating profit exceeded $109 billion, up 24%.

Looking ahead, the technology giant intends to focus on three priorities: cybersecurity, artificial intelligence innovation and dynamic cost structure management to ensure long-term sustainable operational advantage.