Alphabet Inc.’s Google is set to invest more than $10 billion in southern India to establish a 1-gigawatt data center in Visakhapatnam.
The project marks one of the company’s biggest commitments in India, a crucial market for its global growth plans.
The data center, expected to be completed within two years, aligns with Andhra Pradesh’s broader target of developing 6 gigawatts of data center capacity by 2029. Nara Lokesh, the state’s technology minister and son of Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, said it was not just about the jobs but about the larger ripple effect and the economic activity it would generate.
India has become a key destination in the global data center boom, driven by rising demand for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Amazon has announced plans to invest $12.7 billion in cloud infrastructure across India by 2030.
ChatGPT-maker OpenAI is also exploring the setup of a 1-gigawatt data center in the region.
According to CBRE Group Inc., total investments in India’s data center market could exceed $100 billion by 2027.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi views technology as a cornerstone for economic growth and poverty reduction. However, the expansion faces challenges, including limited water availability and unreliable electricity - two key bottlenecks for large-scale data operations.
The Telugu Desam Party (TDP), led by Naidu, plays a significant role in advancing Modi’s technology ambitions. The Andhra Pradesh government offers incentives such as subsidised land and power for new industrial ventures. In the late 1990s, Naidu gained recognition as a visionary leader for transforming Hyderabad into a major tech hub, home to global companies like Microsoft Corp. and Oracle Corp.
Building on that legacy, the TDP is now working to secure favorable national policies for investors in the state. Lokesh said they were willing to engage in discussions that might even require policy intervention at the federal level, describing the government’s approach as a “double engine, a bullet train.”