Microsoft plans to spend $50 billion on AI projects throughout the “Global South.”

Software companies are being forced by the AI competition to make significant investments in AI in order to increase their income. 

Microsoft, the largest software business in the world, also revealed on Wednesday that it plans to invest roughly $50 billion in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in the Global South by the end of the decade.The software behemoth has previously made significant investments in important markets. 

In an effort to increase its footprint in one of the fastest-growing digital economies in the world, the business said last year that it will invest $17.5 billion in AI in India. According to the corporation, the larger investment push is intended to assist AI innovation, infrastructure, and technology access in poor nations.

The statement was delivered on February 18, 2026, at an AI summit in New Delhi, when government representatives and world technology experts convened to talk about the direction of AI development. Microsoft has invested $50 billion in cloud services, AI infrastructure, and collaborations with enterprises, academic institutions, and local governments.

In order to develop talent and technological capabilities in these areas, the business intends to assist AI research, education, and startups. This action is in line with Microsoft’s overarching objective of democratizing AI, guaranteeing that cutting-edge technology are not limited to wealthy countries.

In the AI race, the Global South is becoming a more significant market as well as a source of creativity and skill.  Mostly in the south, it refers to developing, emerging, or lower-income nations.

According to experts, Microsoft’s investment is a means of fostering the appropriate deployment of AI while increasing its global impact.  By providing nations in these areas with more access to state-of-the-art resources like massive language models, cloud computing solutions driven by artificial intelligence, and automation technologies, the project may aid in closing digital divides.Numerous news outlets say that Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta, Nvidia, Tesla, and other enterprise software and hardware companies are driving these expenditures in 2025–2026.  Large-scale, open-source models, specialized chips, and data center expansion were frequently the main topics of discussion.