Tech giant's $25 billion plan to reshape the Aussie workplace
9NewsMicrosoft has announced its largest-ever technology investment in Australia, with chief executive Satya Nadella committing $25 billion to expand AI infrastructure, strengthen national cybersecurity and train three million Australians with AI skills by 2028.
Nadella made the announcement during a visit to Sydney, where he met with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and toured Australian businesses already putting artificial intelligence to work.
In an exclusive interview with 9News, Nadella said Australia's readiness for AI had impressed him.
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"There's no sort of time lag between what may be happening on the west coast of the United States or the east coast of China and what's happening in Australia," he said.
The $25 billion commitment covers capital and operational expenditure to expand Azure AI supercomputing and cloud infrastructure across Australia by the end of 2029.
The investment is backed by a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian government.
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On the question many Australians are asking, whether AI will cost them their jobs, Nadella was direct.
"The state of AI, and quite frankly even for the foreseeable future, is more about what I'll call task level automation inside of jobs," he said.
He pointed to a conversation with an Australian start-up building a medical scribe tool as an example.
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"One of the things he was describing to me was how much it's benefiting the physicians by reducing their paperwork burden and helping them spend more time with patients."
Microsoft will also expand its cybersecurity partnership with the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD), with the Microsoft-ASD Cyber Shield program set to cover additional federal agencies.
Since launching in 2023, the program has secured more than 38,000 government accounts and identified 35 previously unknown vulnerabilities.
On skills, Microsoft has committed to training three million Australians with AI-ready workforce skills by 2028 — tripling its previous goal of one million people across Australia and New Zealand, which was achieved ahead of schedule.
A new program, Microsoft Elevate for Educators, launches today to help teachers build confidence using AI in classrooms.
Asked whether Australia could become an AI powerhouse, Nadella said the technology would amplify what the country already does well.
"AI is more an accelerant to the comparative advantage of countries and companies that already have that going," he said.
"Australia today is a powerhouse on many fronts, and those fronts will get more amplified because of their use of AI."
Microsoft also becomes a founding industry partner of the Australian AI Safety Institute under the announcement.
