Google is reportedly preparing to invest US$6 billion to establish its first data centre in India, featuring an IT load capacity of 1 gigawatt (GW), which would position it as one of the largest data centres in the Asia-Pacific region. According to a Reuters report citing unnamed government sources, the facility is planned for the southern port city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.
The total investment includes US$2 billion earmarked for renewable energy capacity to power the data centre sustainably. While Google’s parent company Alphabet has not officially confirmed the project, Andhra Pradesh’s information technology minister, Nara Lokesh, indicated that the state has finalized data centre investments totaling 1.6GW, with several facilities expected to become operational within the next 24 months. Lokesh hinted at upcoming announcements scheduled for October.
In related developments, Sify Technologies recently received approval to develop a 550MW data centre in Visakhapatnam, valued at approximately US$1.87 billion. Andhra Pradesh is also planning a 500-acre Data City in Madhurawada, a key business and residential area of Visakhapatnam, to support the growing demand for data infrastructure.
For context, India’s current operational data centre capacity stands at about 1.4GW. To support the surge in data centre projects, Andhra Pradesh plans to establish three subsea cable landing stations in Visakhapatnam.
In comparison, the largest operational data centre in APAC is China Mobile’s 200MW facility in Harbin, China. Meanwhile, larger gigawatt-scale AI data centres are being planned in South Korea, including a proposed 3GW facility by Fir Hills in Jeollanam-do province.
