Microsoft to invest $3.2 bn in AI in Sweden

STOCKHOLM: Microsoft said Monday it would invest 33.7 billion kronor ($3.2 billion) over two years in cloud and artificial intelligence infrastructure in Sweden, its biggest investment in the country.

The group will train 250,000 people by 2027 to boost AI knowledge and competence and also increase capacity at its three data centres in the country, it said.

“Microsoft’s largest investment in our history in Sweden” would enable the Scandinivian country “to build world leading AI data centre infrastructure,” the company’s president and vice chair Brad Smith told reporters at a joint press conference with Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson.

“A big part of the reason we’re able to do this is because of Sweden’s forward-looking energy policy, the plentiful access to green energy, whether it’s carbon free energy, or renewable energy,” Smith said.

The US group has in recent months announced similar AI investments in other countries, including in France where it vowed to invest four billion euros and Japan where it announced a $2.9 billion AI push.

In Sweden, Microsoft will provide more than 20,000 graphic processing units (GPUs), needed for training AI models, and will boost capacity at its data centres in Sandviken, Gavle and Staffanstorp.

“AI is a catalyst for many things,” Kristersson said.

“It will also help accelerate development in other areas. This huge investment in Sweden has the potential to pave the way for other investments,” he said.