By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil

NEW DELHI, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Microsoft ( MSFT ) chief

executive Satya Nadella is set to travel to India in December,

his second visit to the South Asian country this year where he

plans to hold meetings with top government officials, two

sources with direct knowledge said.

Nadella will address two AI-related conferences in Bengaluru

and Mumbai during his visit, which also includes meetings in New

Delhi, said one of the sources.

Microsoft ( MSFT ) did not respond to a request for comment.

Like other big tech executives, the Indian-born Nadella

enjoys strong popularity in a country where engineering degrees

are seen as a path to prosperity.

News of his planned visit comes as New Delhi and Washington

are trying to iron out trade differences, and as Prime Minister

Narendra Modi and his officials are promoting the use of local

apps over U.S. firms. Among those is Zoho, which offers cheaper

alternatives to cloud-based software tools made by Microsoft ( MSFT ).

During his January visit to India, Nadella announced a

$3 billion investment in AI and cloud capacity, and met Modi.

Companies are ramping up their focus on AI in India, where

Microsoft ( MSFT )-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT, Google's Gemini,

and Elon Musk's Grok have exploded in popularity. Microsoft's ( MSFT ) AI

assistant Copilot is used widely too, particularly in companies.

Google this month said it would invest $15 billion over five

years to set up an AI data centre in India's southern state of

Andhra Pradesh.

Nadella will also likely meet key customers and India

employees during his visit, the second source said. Microsoft ( MSFT )

has more than 20,000 employees across 10 Indian cities.