Google announced its biggest investment yet in India on Tuesday, with plans to build an artificial intelligence data centre worth $15 billion over five years.
The data centre, in India’s southern state of Andhra Pradesh, will be Google’s “largest AI hub” outside the United States, the company’s top official said.
“This long-term vision we have is to accelerate India’s own AI mission,” Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said.
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Google has committed to spending about $85 billion this year to build out data centre capacity as big tech companies invest heavily to build new infrastructure in their competition to meet booming demand for AI services.
The data centre campus in the port city of Visakhapatnam will have an initial capacity of 1 Gigawatt.
“This initiative creates substantial economic and societal opportunities for both India and the United States,” Google said in a statement.
Microsoft and Amazon have already poured billions into building data centres in India, the world’s most populous nation where nearly a billion users access the internet.
Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani have also unveiled investments in building capacity for data centres.
Adani Group and India’s Airtel have partnered with Google to build the infrastructure for its new project, which also includes construction of a new international subsea gateway.
AI requires enormous computing power, pushing demand for specialised data centres that enable tech companies to link thousands of chips together in clusters.
Earlier, state officials had estimated the investment at $10 billion for the centre, which they said would generate 188,000 jobs.
US tensions loom
Google parent Alphabet Inc counts India as a key growth market where its YouTube video services has most users, and Android phones dominate smartphone usage.
However, the US firm has been battling many antitrust challenges in India over its business practices, and also faces a lawsuit from a Bollywood couple challenging YouTube’s AI policy.
Meanwhile, its expansion in India comes amid a tense diplomatic standoff between New Delhi and Washington over tariffs and a stalled trade deal, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged a boycott of foreign goods.
Business executives and Modi supporters have also stoked anti-American sentiment to protest against the tariff of 50% on imported Indian goods.
Still, in recent weeks, Indian officials have privately met many executives of US companies to say they are committed to providing an easy business environment despite the discontent over US tariffs, two sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity.
- Reuters, with additional editing by Vishakha Saxena
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