India is increasingly emerging as a preferred destination for large-scale foreign capital deployment across infrastructure, manufacturing, technology, and human capital. Foreign inflows into Indian equities have regained momentum, but the more consequential development lies in foreign direct investment and long-duration capital. Global technology leaders are deploying tens of billions of US dollars into cloud infrastructure, AI capacity, advanced manufacturing, and workforce development.
These investments reflect long-term strategic intent rather than cyclical capital allocation.
Microsoft
Microsoft’s planned US$17.5 bn investment between 2026 and 2029 is its largest in Asia, and it highlights India’s role as a platform for AI diffusion at a population scale. The focus extends beyond data centres to national digital platforms and large-scale skills training, with a target of equipping 20 million people with AI capabilities by 2030. This positions India not only as a consumer of technology but as a scalable producer of digital talent.
Amazon
Amazon has announced plans to invest more than US$35 billion in India by 2030, building on nearly US$40 billion already deployed over the past 15 years, positioning it as one of the country’s largest foreign investors. The investment spans e-commerce, cloud, logistics, AI and digital infrastructure, with a strategic focus on AI-led digitisation, export expansion and job creation.
To date, Amazon’s platform has digitised over 12 million small businesses, enabled US$20 billion in cumulative e-commerce exports, and supported approximately 2.8 million jobs across India’s technology, logistics and services ecosystem. By 2030, Amazon expects to support up to 3.8 million jobs and quadruple cumulative exports to US$80 billion, while extending AI capabilities to 15 million small businesses and AI education to 4 million students.
Apple
Manufacturing tells a parallel story. Apple’s rapid expansion of iPhone production in India, now spanning all major models and supplying global markets, demonstrates how India is becoming a meaningful export base rather than a marginal alternative. In the first half of 2025, India produced nearly 24 million iPhones, with exports surging over 50% year-on-year. India has overtaken China as the largest exporter of smartphones to the US, marking a significant realignment in global supply chains.
What it means for investors
Taken together, these developments reflect a broadening of India’s growth drivers. Domestic consumption remains important, but the incremental growth impulse is increasingly coming from foreign capital, global enterprises, and high-value infrastructure investment.
For investors, this shift reinforces the case for active management: the primary beneficiaries of India’s transformation are increasingly found across supply chains, infrastructure, industrials, and emerging technology platforms, rather than solely within yesterday’s large-cap index constituents that dominate passive exposures.
