Gates builds massive new Indian Microsoft campus

Microsoft is set to open a massive new research and development campus in India next year after buying a plot of land just outside of the high-tech city of Hyderabad.

The company already has a presence in India for some software development but silicon.com can exclusively reveal the new development will be Microsoft's first real campus in India. It will be housed on 42.25 acres of land in the Manikonda area, just a short drive away from Hyderabad's Hi-Tec City, which is home to many leading Indian and western IT companies.

silicon.com saw the site, which is currently only a few bricks high, on a recent fact-finding trip out to India. Sources said the land is registered as Microsoft India R&D and that it will be ready some time next year.

Given that Microsoft's Redmond campus is around 355 acres, the new campus on the subcontinent could create thousands of Indian jobs.

Microsoft said it does not comment on plans for future facilities and would not say how many people will be employed there or what specific work would be done at the facility.

Microsoft is not the only big western IT company ramping up its Indian operations. silicon.com also saw a seven acre plot of land that Oracle is currently developing at Hi-Tec City. An Oracle spokeswoman told silicon.com the Hyderabad campus will be a 600,000 square foot office structure that will be ready in three years and that it will house staff from Oracle India Development centre and other teams at Hi-Tec City.

Other companies that are expanding their Indian outposts are 3Com, Qualcomm and SAP.

Articles and commentary on IT offshoring and BPO in India and elsewhere will be appearing on silicon.com over the coming weeks. You can find them all here.