Microsoft to Invest Record 10 B. Dlrs in Japan

Tokyo, April 3 (Jiji Press)–Microsoft Corp. said Friday it will invest 10 billion dollars in Japan between 2026 and 2029 to beef up the country’s artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure capacity so important data can be kept under domestic management. With its single largest financial commitment in the country, the U.S. technology giant will also reinforce cybersecurity cooperation with the government sector and develop human resources in the AI field. Under the investment program, Microsoft has teamed up with data center developer SoftBank Corp. and cloud service provider Sakura Internet Inc. to build a system to allow users of the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform in Japan to complete their data processing with the two Japanese partners’ AI computing infrastructure. The U.S. firm will reinforce its own data centers in the country as well. In a related development the same day, visiting Microsoft President Brad Smith met with Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo to outline the investment plan. “I’m delighted by one of the largest-ever investments in Japan,” Takaichi was quoted as saying by an official with access to the meeting. Speaking to reporters later, Smith expressed hope that his company contributes to boosting Japan’s national cybersecurity and Japanese workers’ AI skills, as well as expanding AI and cloud capacity. Microsoft aims to help strengthen the country’s cyberdefense capabilities in cooperation with the National Police Agency and to foster one million AI developers and engineers by 2030 with Fujitsu Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., NEC Corp., NTT Data Japan Corp. and SoftBank. It also plans to provide AI skilling across the country. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]