Visakhapatnam: In a landmark collaboration, Adani Enterprises, through its joint venture company AdaniConneX, will partner with global tech giant Google to develop India’s largest artificial intelligence (AI) data centre campus and new green energy infrastructure in Visakhapatnam.
The Rs 13,318-crore AI hub in Andhra Pradesh will be Google’s largest outside the US.
The centre will include a 1 GW data centre campus, AI infrastructure, new large-scale energy sources and an expanded fibre-optic network, Google announced on Tuesday.
“This initiative creates substantial economic and societal opportunities for both India and the United States — while pioneering a generational shift in AI capability,” the company said.
Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google’s parent company Alphabet, said in a social media post that he had spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi about the development, adding that it will “bring our industry-leading technology to enterprises and users in India, accelerating AI innovation and driving growth across the country.”
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu described the development as “a new chapter in India’s digital transformation journey” and a significant investment in the state. “We are proud to host India’s first truly gigawatt-scale data centre and Google’s first AI hub in India,” Naidu added.
Incidentally, the AI data centre project is part of a Rs 87,520-crore investment MoU signed between Google and the Andhra government.
Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani lauded the ‘historic project’.
“The Adani Group is proud to partner with Google on this historic project that will define the future of India’s digital landscape. This is more than just an investment in infrastructure. It is an investment in the soul of a rising nation. This partnership is a testament to our shared vision of nation- building and our commitment to empowering every Indian with the tools of the 21st century. Visakhapatnam is now set to become a global destination for technology, and we are thrilled to be the architects of this monumental journey,” said Adani.
Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud CEO, said: “To unlock India’s massive potential in the AI age, we are investing in the Google AI hub, which will provide the critical foundation to drive growth and enable businesses, researchers, and creators to build and scale with AI.”
He added that working with Adani, “we will bring our cutting-edge resources closer to communities and customers alike, and offer them the performance, security, and scalability to innovate and thrive on a global stage.”
Project investment and timeline
According to Google, the investment is for $15 billion (around Rs 13,318 crore), to be used over five years from 2026-30, and the project is aligned with the Central government’s vision of Viksit Bharat 2047.
Google commissioned Access Partnership to analyse the project, which is expected to generate at least $15 billion in GDP for the US, over the five year period due to increased economic activity and cloud and AI adoption, and use of American talent and resources.
Developed with leading partners AdaniConneX and Airtel, the AI hub will be built with the same cutting-edge infrastructure that powers Google products like Search, Workspace, and YouTube.
The centre will include a purpose-built data centre campus, adding gigawatt-scale compute capacity to help meet demand for digital services across India and around the world.
The hub is expected to deliver high-performance and low-latency services that businesses and organisations need to build and scale their own AI-powered solutions, accelerate research and development, and ultimately help India secure its place as a global leader in the AI-driven future.
The new data centre campus will join Google’s existing AI data centres across 12 countries.
The project also includes construction of a new international subsea gateway, including multiple international subsea cables to land on India’s eastern coast in Visakhapatnam. This will connect to Google’s more than two million miles of existing terrestrial and subsea cables.