Microsoft is set to double down on its generative artificial intelligence efforts in 2025 following the company's Vice Chair and President, Brad Smith's recent announcement of the tech giant's plans to invest up to $80 billion in building data centers.

Over half of the investment is reserved for infrastructure. Microsoft President Brad Smith frames AI investment as key to economic growth.

Microsoft Corp. has revealed plans to invest more than $80 billion in the construction of data centers for artificial intelligence workloads during its current fiscal year, part of an effort to cement its status as a leader in the fast-growing industry.

The planned spending represents a 44% increase from last year, and more than half of it is expected to come in the U.S.

The tech giant will funnel more than half of the investments into U.S.-based facilities, Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith said Friday.

Microsoft is one of the biggest spenders, followed closely by Google and AWS, Bloomberg Intelligence said. Its estimate of Microsoft’s capital spending on AI, at $62.4 billion for calendar 2025, is lower than Smith’s claim that the company will invest $80 billion in the fiscal year to June 30, 2025.

The massive sum will go towards building out datacenters for training AI models, as well as deploying and improving global AI and cloud-based applications.

Tech giant Microsoft is set to invest approximately $80bn to expand its artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled data centres by fiscal year 2025. These centres will train AI models and deploy AI and cloud-based applications worldwide.