Adani pledges $100 billion to build AI data centers as India seeks bigger role in global AI race

The Indian Adani Group said on Monday that it will invest $100 billion over the next decade to build data centers specialized in artificial intelligence across the country, a move that confirms India’s ambition to play a greater role in the global artificial intelligence race.

The investment, which will last until 2035, aims to build data centers powered by renewable energy designed to support artificial intelligence workloads, the company said. It expects the plan to catalyze an additional $150 billion in related investments and lead to the creation of a $250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem in India over the decade.

Adani is making this commitment against the backdrop of increasing investments in AI infrastructure as companies increasingly look beyond the US for computing power, power and friendly regulation. India, with its expanding digital economy and growing renewable energy capabilities, has emerged as a major destination for data centers and AI-related infrastructure over the past two years.

The announcement coincides with the ongoing India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi this week, where leaders from some of the world’s top AI companies, including OpenAI, Nvidia, Anthropic, Microsoft and Google, will meet with policymakers and industry executives.

Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani (pictured above) described the plan as a long-term bet on the convergence of energy and computing. “India will not be just a consumer in the age of AI,” he said, adding that the group aims to help build a domestic AI infrastructure base.

The plan is to build off Adani’s existing data center platform and its partnerships with companies like Google and Microsoft. The group is developing large-scale AI data centers in Visakhapatnam and Noida, and has plans to set up more facilities in Hyderabad and Pune. The expanded partnership with Walmart-owned Flipkart will focus on another AI-powered data center.

The broader plan calls for the deployment of up to 5 gigawatts of data center capacity, Adani said. The company said the facilities will be developed as a unified system that will expand power generation and processing capacity in parallel.

The effort builds on AdaniConneX, a joint venture between Adani Enterprises and US-based EdgeConneX, a developer and operator of data centers for large-scale and enterprise customers. Adani said the joint venture has already developed about 2 gigawatts of data center capacity across India.

Central to this strategy is Adani’s renewable energy portfolio, which the group said will provide carbon-neutral energy to data centres. The company pointed to its 30 GW Khavda renewable energy project in western India – of which more than 10 GW is already operational – and said it plans to invest an additional $55 billion to expand renewable energy generation and battery energy storage over the coming years.

In order to reduce exposure to global supply chain disruptions, Adani said it plans to co-invest in local manufacturing of critical components, such as transformers, power electronics and thermal management systems.

Adani did not respond to questions about how much capital has already been committed from the $100 billion investment, how spending will be phased in over the coming years, and when the first large-scale AI workloads are expected to become operational.