Asia Tech Wire (Sep 27) -- Microsoft on Thursday pledged to invest 14.7 billion reais ($2.7 billion) in Brazil over three years to strengthen its cloud infrastructure and artificial intelligence operations in the country.

The investment is the largest single investment Microsoft has announced in Brazil to date and is part of the company's Microsoft Mais Brasil program, which it launched in 2020.

Microsoft estimates that widespread adoption of AI will significantly boost economic growth in Brazil, potentially driving up to 4.2 percentage points of the Brazilian economy by the end of the century.

Over the next three years Microsoft will expand its cloud and AI infrastructure at multiple data centers in the Brazilian state of São Paulo, and provide AI-related training to approximately 5 million people.