Google will invest $15 billion to build a 1-gigawatt data center and AI hub in India, even as the Indian government encourages reducing reliance on U.S. tech giants.
On Tuesday, it announced that it will build the data center in Visakhapatnam, a port city in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. The investment will be done over the next five years, through 2030. Notably, this represents Google’s largest investment in India and comes five years after its initial $10 billion commitment to the country in 2020.
Meanwhile, political and economic factors are influencing the tech landscape. Weeks after former President Donald Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Indian imports in August, Prime Minister Narendra Modi promoted the use of “swadeshi” (made in India) products. Consequently, Indian lawmakers and ministries began backing local alternatives to Google, including Chennai-based Zoho Corporation (offering Google Cloud and Gmail competitors), WhatsApp rival Arattai, and MapMyIndia, a Google Maps competitor. While the immediate impact has been limited, these initiatives could pose long-term challenges for Google and Microsoft in India.
The company currently employs 14,000 people in India and has operated in the country for 21 years, with Delhi and Mumbai designated as official cloud regions.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said that the new AI hub represents the company’s largest investment outside the U.S. and that the company plans to scale it to “multiple gigawatts” over time.
“It is part of a global network of AI centers in 12 different countries,” Kurian said at the launch in New Delhi. “In addition to that, we’re also pleased to announce that we will be making Vishakhapatnam a global connectivity hub.”
In addition, the company plans to bring its subsea cable infrastructure to Visakhapatnam. The company has partnered with Bharti Airtel to build both the data center and the cable landing station and teamed up with AdaniConneX (backed by Adani Group) to set up the necessary infrastructure.
“We see it not just becoming a landing station for a large number of cables, but also providing a digital backbone connecting different parts of India together,” Kurian explained.
The AI hub will provide a full stack of solutions, including Google’s custom Tensor Processing Units (TPUs) for local AI processing. Additionally, the hub will offer access to Google’s AI models, including Gemini, and its platform for building agents and applications. It will also support consumer services such as Google Search, YouTube, Gmail, and Google Ads.
“We see this hub not just serving India but from India serving Asia and other parts of the world,” Kurian added.
Google’s choice of Visakhapatnam aligns with Andhra Pradesh’s history of attracting global tech firms. Under Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, the state previously drew companies like Oracle and Microsoft to Hyderabad, its capital before the creation of Telangana. Naidu, a close political ally of Prime Minister Modi, has played a key role in shaping national policy discussions.
“This AI hub will be a very important contribution to the [India] AI mission goals in different ways,” said Indian IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
The minister also urged the company to consider the Andaman Islands as a future global internet data hub, noting that Singapore “is all choked.” He assured Google of full government support and recommended linking Visakhapatnam with Sittwe in Myanmar to improve connectivity for India’s northeastern states.
