Google announced on Tuesday a $15 billion investment to establish a 1-gigawatt data center and AI hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, marking the company’s largest-ever investment in India. The move comes as the Indian government ramps up efforts to reduce reliance on U.S. tech giants and promote local innovation.
The investment, to be made through 2030, builds on Google’s earlier $10 billion India Digitization Fund launched in 2020. The new project will serve as both a data center and a global AI hub, featuring Google’s custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) and access to its Gemini AI models and developer platforms.
“This is part of a global network of AI centers in 12 countries,” said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian at the launch in New Delhi. “We see this hub not just serving India but from India serving Asia and other parts of the world.”
Google will partner with Bharti Airtel and AdaniConneX to build the hub and a subsea cable landing station in Visakhapatnam, strengthening digital connectivity across India. The new facility is also expected to boost services like Search, YouTube, Gmail, and Google Ads for the region.
The project aligns with India’s push for technological self-reliance,or “swadeshi”, amid growing political pressure to favor domestic firms such as Zoho, Arattai, and MapMyIndia, which compete with Google’s cloud, messaging, and mapping products.
Indian IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw hailed the initiative as a key contribution to India’s national AI goals, encouraging Google to expand further, including exploring Andaman Islands as a future global connectivity hub.
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Google currently employs 14,000 people in India and operates cloud regions in Delhi and Mumbai. The new hub signals a major step in its long-term strategy to make India a global center for AI development and infrastructure.
