Microsoft has announced plans to invest around $80 billion (£63.7 billion) into developing data centres capable of training the next generation of AI models.

In a blog post on Friday, Brad Smith, Microsoft’s vice-chair and president, set out the tech firm’s vision for the future of artificial intelligence, calling the coming year a ‘golden opportunity for American technology’.

The company’s strategy for 2025 will see Microsoft invest tens of billions into new data centres that form the backbone of the tech giant’s AI and cloud based applications. 

Smith said that more than half of the approximately $80 billion being invested will remain in the US, where the firm hopes to help boost the wider technology sector through collaboration with the various construction firms, suppliers, and software developers that it will need to bring these new data centres online.

According to Smith, these latest investments will add to the more than $35 billion (£27.9 billion) that the company committed last year to the development of secure AI and cloud data centre infrastructure across 14 countries within three years.  

Microsoft said it is on a path to train 2.5 million American students, workers, and community members with AI skills this year, and believes that the technology can help create a billion new jobs, across manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and government.

Smith’s post reaffirms Microsoft’s commitment to the American economy, describing the US as being at the ‘forefront of this new technology wave’ and leading the AI arms-race. 

Ahead of the incoming Trump administration, the firm is calling for the US Government to provide more funding for AI research, develop a national AI talent strategy, and establish an international strategy to support US firms in the face of rapidly accelerating competition, especially in China.  

“American companies currently have better technology, from chips to AI models to software applications,” wrote Smith.

“In addition, many US companies, including Microsoft, have invested heavily in building AI that is more trustworthy than most products from China. 

“We are designing AI technology that protects cybersecurity, privacy, digital safety, and other responsible uses of AI. And we are making this technology available around the world through data centers that meet the US Government’s highest cyber and physical security standards.”

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According to documents leaked last year and seen by Business Insider, Microsoft has reportedly already significantly stepped up its capabilities, delivering more than 500 megawatts in new data centre capacity since July 2023, while a report published last year by The Information alleged that the company is working on a new supercomputer alongside OpenAI which would require immense computing power.

More recently, the firm unveiled new plans for next-generation data centre cooling systems, designed to save over 125 million litres of water per data centre annually, with the new zero-evaporation systems due to be piloted at two US data centre projects in 2026.