BERLIN: U.S. software giant Microsoft will invest 3.2 billion euros ($3.44 billion) in Germany in the next two years with a focus on artificial intelligence, Microsoft chairperson Brad Smith said at an event in the German capital on Thursday.

In the biggest investment made by the company in Germany in the last 40 years, Microsoft will spend mostly on setting up data centres and on training people in artificial intelligence in 2024 and 2025.

“We are doing this today because of the enormous confidence we have in Germany,” said Smith.

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German Chancellor Olaf Scholz welcomed the move, saying it represented a vote of confidence for Europe’s biggest economy.

Marianne Janik, CEO of Microsoft Germany, declined to say exactly where the investments would be made, but said they were mostly looking in the western Rhineland region and around the banking hub of Frankfurt.