Visakhapatnam (Vizag), India – Google has announced a monumental investment of $15 billion over the next five years (2026-2030) to establish a massive Artificial Intelligence (AI) hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. This investment represents the tech giant’s largest AI hub commitment anywhere in the world outside of the United States, positioning India as a new global cornerstone for AI innovation.
The announcement was made at the ‘Bharat AI Shakti’ event in New Delhi, in the presence of senior central and state government officials.
Key Highlights of the Landmark Project
The Visakhapatnam AI hub is a multifaceted infrastructure project designed to meet India’s surging digital demands and accelerate the “AI for All” vision.
- Gigawatt-Scale Compute Capacity: The investment will fund a purpose-built, 1-gigawatt hyperscale data center campus capable of handling advanced AI workloads, deep learning, neural network training, and large-scale AI model inference. This facility will house Google’s proprietary TPUs (Tensor Processing Units) and GPUs.
- Global Connectivity Gateway: The hub will transform Vizag into a major digital backbone by establishing a new international subsea gateway. This involves landing multiple international subsea cables on India’s eastern coast, providing route diversity to complement existing landings in Mumbai and Chennai, and connecting India to Google’s global network across 12 countries, including Singapore and Australia.
- Strategic Partnerships: Google will partner with AdaniConneX and Bharti Airtel for the co-development of the core AI data center and the necessary high-capacity fiber and clean energy infrastructure.
- Clean Energy Focus: The project includes plans to co-invest in new transmission lines, clean energy generation, and energy storage systems in Andhra Pradesh to sustainably power the gigawatt-scale facility, aligning with Google’s commitment to energy-efficient operations.
Economic Impact and National Significance
The $15 billion investment is seen as a major catalyst for India’s digital economy and an important step towards realizing the government’s Viksit Bharat 2047 vision.
- Job Creation: The project is projected to generate tens of thousands of jobs in construction, data center operations, and technology development, with some estimates suggesting up to 1.8 lakh new jobs across the ecosystem.
- AI for All: By housing data locally and providing scalable, high-performance AI infrastructure, the hub will enable Indian enterprises, startups, and researchers to build and scale their own AI-powered solutions, democratizing access to cutting-edge technology like Google’s Gemini, Imagine, and Veo models.
- Data Sovereignty: Local data housing will also help meet requirements under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023, for storing Indian consumer data within the country.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian called the facility a “landmark investment in India’s digital future,” while Google CEO Sundar Pichai highlighted that the hub will “accelerate AI innovation and drive growth across the country.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed his delight, noting the investment aligns with the vision to build a Viksit Bharat and will be a “powerful force in democratizing technology.”
