Google is doubling down on India’s digital future. On Tuesday, the tech giant revealed it will pour $15 billion into a new artificial intelligence (AI) data centre and hub in the southern port city of Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The investment, slated to roll out over the next five years through 2030, is Google’s largest in India to date, and its biggest AI hub outside the United States.
India’s Data Centre Boom Gets a Major Boost
The move underscores the breakneck pace at which India’s data centre market is expanding. Over the past five years, the country’s total data centre capacity has tripled, crossing the 1-gigawatt mark in 2024, according to JLL’s India Data Centre Market Dynamics 2024 report. Andhra Pradesh, keen to attract global tech giants, has offered subsidised land and electricity, making it a magnet for investments like Google’s.
Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, described the project as “the largest AI hub that we are going to be investing in anywhere in the world, outside of the United States.” The campus will add gigawatt-scale compute power, catering to India’s nearly one billion internet users and the surging demand for digital services and AI-powered technologies.
Big Tech Bets and India’s Digital Ambitions
Google’s announcement comes at a time when American tech titans are racing to build up their AI and data centre infrastructure worldwide. In September, Google pledged $6.67 billion to expand its UK data centre presence, and just this week, it revealed a $9 billion investment for its South Carolina campus in the US. Microsoft and Amazon have also recently committed billions to India’s cloud and data infrastructure. Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani are making similar moves, betting big on the country’s digital backbone.
The Andhra Pradesh project is expected to generate 188,000 jobs, according to state officials—a much-needed boost for local economies. The government is also pushing Google to consider other strategic locations, such as the Andaman Islands, as future data transfer hubs to ease connectivity bottlenecks in Asia.
Google’s parent, Alphabet Inc., sees India as a cornerstone for growth, with its Android OS dominating smartphone usage and YouTube counting the largest user base globally. As AI models require enormous computing resources, investments like these are vital for keeping India at the forefront of the digital revolution.
