Google invests $15 billion in Indian AI infrastructure centre

Google is investing $15 billion to set up a 1-gigawatt data center and artificial intelligence center in India, even as the Indian government seeks to reduce dependence on American tech giants.

Google said on Tuesday that it will build the data center in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam. The company added that the investment will take place over the next five years until 2030. Notably, this represents Google’s largest investment in India and comes five years after it first announced a $10 billion commitment to the South Asian country in 2020.

Weeks after President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Indian imports in August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi began urging the use of “swadeshi” (Hindi for “made in India”) products. In response, Indian lawmakers and ministries have begun promoting home-grown alternatives to Google — including those offered by Chennai-based technology company Zoho Corporation, which offers rivals to Google Cloud and Gmail, and, more recently, WhatsApp rival Aratai, as well as MapMy India, a rival to Google Maps. Although the initial impact was limited, these moves could pose a real political threat to the future of Google and Microsoft in India.

Google has 14,000 employees in India and has been operating in the country for 21 years. The company also considers Delhi and Mumbai as official cloud regions.

Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said the new Google AI center will be the company’s largest investment outside the United States, adding that it will scale to “several gigawatts” over time.

“It is part of a global network of AI centers in 12 different countries,” Kurian said at the launch of the AI ​​center in New Delhi. “In addition, we are also happy to announce that we will make Vishakhapatnam a global connectivity hub.”

Google also announced plans to bring submarine cable infrastructure to Visakhapatnam. The US tech giant has partnered with Indian telecom company Bharti Airtel to build a data center and cable landing station in the city. Moreover, Google has collaborated with AdaniConneX powered by Adani Group to set up the data center infrastructure.

“We see it not just as a landing station for a large number of cables, but also providing the digital backbone that connects different parts of India together,” Kurian said.

Google said the AI ​​center will offer a “full suite of solutions,” including custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) to enable local AI processing.

The Mountain View-based company will also provide access to its AI models — including Gemini — and its platform for building agents and applications. The center will also support consumer services such as Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, and Google Ads.

“We see that this center serves not only India, but also serves Asia and other parts of the world from India,” Kurian said.

Google’s choice of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh is not surprising. The southern state, under the leadership of Prime Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu previously urged global technology companies such as Oracle and Microsoft to set up centers in Hyderabad, which was the capital of Andhra Pradesh before the creation of Telangana. Naidu, a key political ally who supported Prime Minister Modi’s return to power in the recent general elections, has since played a prominent role in shaping national policy debates.

“This artificial intelligence center will be a very important contribution to… [India] “The goals of the AI ​​mission are in different ways,” said Indian Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

The minister urged Google to consider India’s Andaman Islands as the next major hub for global internet data transfer, noting that Singapore was “absolutely choked”, and assured the company of full government support. He also proposed linking Visakhapatnam with Sittwe in Myanmar to improve connectivity in India’s north-eastern states.