Google to invest $15B in Indian AI infrastructure hub

Summary

Google is making a $15 billion investment to set up a 1-gigawatt data center and AI hub in India, even as the Indian government pushes for reduced reliance on U.S. tech giants. On Tuesday, Google said it would build the data center in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, in the port city of Visakhapatnam. The investment will take place over the next five years through 2030, the company added. Notably, this marks Google’s largest investment in India and comes five years after it first announced a $10 billion commitment to the South Asian nation 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 started promoting local alternatives to Google — including those from Chennai-based enterprise tech firm Zoho Corporation, which offers competitors to Google Cloud and Gmail, and most recently, WhatsApp-rival Arattai, as well as MapMyIndia, a Google Maps-rival. While the initial impact has been limited, these moves could pose a real political threat to the future of companies Google and Microsoft in India. Google has 14,000 employees in India, and has operated in the country for 21 years. The company also counts Delhi and Mumbai as official cloud regions. The new Google AI hub will be the company’s largest investment outside of the U.S., said Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian, adding that it would be scaled to “multiple 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 hub in New Delhi. “In addition to that, we’re also pleased to announce that we will be making Vishakhapatnam a global connectivity hub.” Google also announced plans to bring its subsea cable infrastructure to Visakhapatnam. The U.S. tech giant has partnered with Indian telecom provider Bharti Airtel to build both the data center and the cable land...