Will empower Indian developers to build AI products for the world: Nadella

Microsoft will empower the fast-growing developer community in India to not only build products and services for the country but also for the world, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella said on Thursday.

Addressing the developers' community here, Nadella said that Microsoft, at the end of the day, is a developer company and India holds the biggest promise in creating AI-based products on the company's AI-powered platform GitHub.

"India which is currently second to the US will have the largest developer community on GitHub by 2027. The country is currently second among the top 10 global communities creating the most generative AI projects on GitHub," Nadella told the gathering.

Last November, Github said it had 13.2 million developers in India, with 3.5 million joining the platform from the country in 2023 alone.

Developers in India are the second biggest contributor to generative AI projects on GitHub globally. With this sustained and significant growth, GitHub forecasts that India will surpass the US in total developer population by 2027.

India's developer community has experienced consistent YoY growth, including a 36 per cent increase in 2023.

Nadella said that 10 per cent of India's $5 trillion economy goal by 2025 will be led by AI.

On Wednesday, Nadella said that Microsoft is going to provide AI skilling opportunities to 2 million people in India by 2025.

The 2023 edition of GitHub's State of the Octoverse report showed that generative AI is driving a significant and global spike in individual contributors to generative AI projects with 148 per cent year-over-year (YoY) growth.

Notably, the US, India and Germany are leading the way among developer communities, with other regions, including the UK, Japan, Hong Kong, and France following.