One quick thing: Delaware court reverses $1 billion damages ruling against Byju Raveendran

In today’s newsletter: 

• Billions: Microsoft and Amazon bring their battle to India
• Meesho’s bumper listing
• Marquee investors queue up for Swiggy QIP

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The Microsoft-Amazon rivalry has found a new battleground: India.

Microsoft moved first with a $17.5 billion commitment in India over four years until 2029, its largest investment in Asia. Amazon one-upped it today with roughly double that amount, pledging $35 billion through 2030. (Coincidence? Maybe or maybe not!)

• Both firms are locked in an escalating battle for cloud computing dominance, fueled by the rising demand for AI offerings

• These moves follow Google's $15 billion investment announced in October to build an AI hub in India

Also Read: Tech biggies bet big billions on India boosting job prospects with AI, data centre push

Microsoft's investment is aimed squarely at accelerating AI adoption, while Amazon's plans are broader, covering business expansion and export-led growth. 

• Amazon's pledge expands its earlier $26 billion commitment from 2023, which includes a $12.7 billion investment in cloud and AI infrastructure by 2030

Meanwhile, Microsoft’s outlay sits on top of the $3 billion announced in January, taking its total commitment to $20.5 billion.

A significant chunk of Microsoft's investment is going towards a forthcoming data centre in Hyderabad, slated to go live in mid-2026. (Size? Think of two Eden Gardens stadiums put together.)

• Microsoft is also rolling out sovereign cloud offerings for Indian customers and doubling its skilling commitment to train 20 million people in AI skills by 2030

Also Read: India’s ‘virtuous cycle’ for tech involving policy, market is “magic”, says Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella

Amazon’s three focus areas are AI-driven digitisation, export growth, and job creation.

Coming up are AI-powered shopping features for consumers and new tools for small businesses. Recent features include the visual discovery tool LensAI, the conversational assistant Rufus, and seller tools like Seller Assistant and Next Gen Selling.

• By 2030, Amazon aims to generate an additional 1 million direct, indirect, induced, and seasonal jobs and quadruple cumulative ecommerce exports to $80 billion by 2030

India is a crucial growth market for these companies as AI becomes central to their long-term strategies.

Go deeper

From thrift to thrill — value commerce rang the loudest bell on Dalal Street.

Meesho didn’t tiptoe into the markets — it cartwheeled in.

• Meesho shares listed at Rs 162.50 on the NSE and Rs 161.20 on BSE against an IPO price band of Rs 105–111, delivering a debut premium of about 46%

The stock surged to an intraday high of Rs 177.49, marking a rise of nearly 60% over the issue price.

• The Rs 5,421-crore IPO saw overwhelming demand in the primary market and was subscribed 79 times

The street’s verdict is clear: Meesho may sell discounts, but the market is paying up.

• At around a Rs 50,000-crore valuation, Meesho is trading at roughly 5.5 times FY25 sales, which analysts say is attractive compared to listed internet peers

• Analysts note that Meesho turned free-cash-flow positive in FY25, even though reported net profit remains impacted by one-time items

The company has said that IPO proceeds will fund cloud infrastructure, marketing, brand-building and inorganic growth initiatives.

 While Meesho grabbed the spotlight, Wakefit queued up, and Aequs clocked its own win.

• Wakefit’s Rs 1,289-crore IPO was subscribed nearly 2.52 times

• Wakefit also raised Rs 580 crore from anchor investors and plans to use the funds to open 117 new stores, upgrade machinery and step up marketing spends

Meanwhile, Aequs listed at Rs 140 against an IPO price of Rs 124 and closed its debut session at Rs 150, taking its market capitalisation to about Rs 10,060 crore.

Swiggy placed an order for another Rs 10,000 crore… and a clutch of investors showed appetite for more. 

Swiggy’s Rs 10,000 crore QIP saw stronger-than-anticipated demand from a bunch of investors.

• SBI Mutual Fund, Temasek, GIC and Nomura are some of the popular investors who submitted bids to invest in Swiggy’s QIP, sources told us
  
  
• Apart from SBI, other top MFs like HDFC, ICICI Prudential and Kotak have also submitted bids, collectively driving demand to as much as Rs 40,000 crore, four times Swiggy’s planned fundraise of Rs 10,000 crore

Interestingly, Temasek was one of the early backers of Zomato (now Eternal) and is now betting on arch-rival Swiggy.

A bulk of the Rs 10,000 crore ( about $1.2 billion) proceeds will come from domestic MFs, with the balance coming from foreign institutional investors (FIIs), we were told.

• Domestic MFs, including SBI, HDFC, ICICI Prudential and Kotak, will invest about $1 billion
  
  
• FIIs such as Temasek, Nomura and GIC will put in around $200 million

To be sure, the issue has been oversubscribed, and the final allotment and allocation will be decided in the coming weeks.

Swiggy is raising money to further intensify the red-hot quick commerce industry in India.  

• Nearly half  of the Rs 10,000 crore Swiggy plans to raise – Rs 4,475 crore to be precise - will go into scaling Instamart, its quick-commerce infrastructure, filings showed
  
  
• Another Rs 985 crore has been earmarked for technology and cloud infrastructure
  
  
• Finally, up to 25% of the gross proceeds may be used for inorganic growth and general corporate purposes, although no fresh acquisition targets have been identified yet

Dig deeper

• Meta is targeting an early 2026 launch for its new AI model Avocado, amid training hurdles and a possible shift to closed-source.
  
  
• Accenture and Anthropic announced an expansion of their partnership through a new business group, in which around 30,000 of the consulting giant's employees will be trained on the AI startup's Claude model.

Cancelled or delayed flights have sent travel plans for a toss.

• It's a no-show at many hotels, resulting in mass cancellations amid the IndiGo crisis

Cancellations up to 15%, rescheduled check-ins and last-minute reshuffles have created chaos at many hotel chains. 

Know more

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