Microsoft to Spend $80 Billion for Artificial Intelligence

Microsoft published a long article describing its vision for the development of artificial intelligence for the four years that will begin with the Trump administration taking office. According to this article, the company announced that it will spend a total of $80 billion on AI-enabled data centres in 2025.
Microsoft said it is building data centres to train and deploy AI models and power its cloud-based applications. While this amount is its entire budget for worldwide projects, more than half will be used to build data centres in the United States.
The company said that ‘without new partnerships based on large-scale infrastructure investments’ none of the advances the industry has made to date in artificial intelligence would be possible. It is therefore calling on the incoming Trump administration to expand government support for the advancement of AI within the US, such as increased funding for research from the National Science Foundation and US universities.
While Microsoft acknowledged in its letter that it knows AI will ‘disrupt the economy and destroy some jobs’, it also stated that it has ‘growing confidence that AI will create new opportunities that will outweigh many of the challenges ahead’. The most important point, Microsoft explained, will be to train Americans to use AI as a tool for their jobs in the same way they currently use smartphones and laptops.
Finally, the company said that the third critical priority for 2025 is the promotion of American AI exports. According to Microsoft, there will be a race between the US and China to spread their technology to other countries, and the US will need a smart strategy as the ‘first and fastest mover’ will win this race.