Microsoft to invest $129 billion in AI data centres

Microsoft plans to invest around $US80 billion ($A129 billion) in the expansion of data centres for artificial intelligence (AI) during the current financial year - with more than half of that to be invested in the United States.

The current fiscal year for Microsoft runs until the end of June. The additional computing power is intended to be used for training AI models and launching AI-based features worldwide, the company said on Friday in a blog post.

Microsoft became a frontrunner in the use of AI software through a multi-billion dollar pact with ChatGPT developer OpenAI and is attempting to integrate it across its entire product range.

AI software is trained with vast amounts of various types of data - and this requires enormous computer resources. The already massive data centres necessary for this consume a lot of energy.

It has been announced that a reactor at the decommissioned US nuclear power plant Three Mile Island is to be restarted to supply electricity for Microsoft's data centres. The company agreed to purchase the produced energy for 20 years.

This marks the first time a decommissioned nuclear power plant in the US is brought back online.