Google is set to invest $15 billion over the next five years to establish its first Artificial Intelligence (AI) hub in India. This move, announced on Tuesday, marks Google's largest investment in the country to date and underscores its confidence in India's growing digital economy.
The AI hub will be located in Visakhapatnam (Vizag), Andhra Pradesh, and is slated for development between 2026 and 2030. This multi-faceted investment will encompass gigawatt-scale data center operations, new large-scale energy sources, and an expanded fiber-optic network. Google's commitment includes constructing a purpose-built data center campus with gigawatt-scale compute capacity, adhering to the same high standards that power its global services like Search, YouTube, and Workspace.
In addition to the data center, Google plans to build a major new international subsea gateway in Visakhapatnam. This connectivity hub on India's eastern coast will enhance route diversity and bolster the resilience of India's digital infrastructure, complementing existing landings in Mumbai and Chennai. The company will collaborate with partners AdaniConnex and Airtel to provide reliable infrastructure for large enterprises and Indian startups to develop and scale AI-powered solutions.
Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian highlighted the strategic importance of this investment, stating that the data center in Andhra Pradesh would be the company's "largest AI hub" outside the United States. He emphasized that Google's long-term vision is to accelerate India's AI mission. The AI hub is designed to offer a comprehensive suite of solutions using Google's proprietary TPUs (Tensor Processing Units), which are noted for being twice as power-efficient. Data will be housed locally to meet sovereign AI requirements, and Google will deploy its own models, including Gemini, Imagine, and Veo. The hub is intended to provide full AI infrastructure to serve Google's needs and those of entrepreneurs, enterprises, and commercial organizations in India.
This investment aligns with the Indian government's Viksit Bharat 2047 vision and is expected to play a significant role in advancing U.S.-India tech cooperation, particularly in secure and responsible AI development. Furthermore, Google plans to collaborate with partners to deliver new transmission lines, clean energy generation, and energy storage systems in Andhra Pradesh, thereby expanding the portfolio of clean energy contributing to India's electricity grid.
Union Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Ashwini Vaishnaw, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, and state IT Minister Nara Lokesh attended the event in Delhi where the formal agreement was signed. Vaishnaw expressed his gratitude for Google's investment, noting that this digital infrastructure would significantly contribute to achieving India's AI vision.
This initiative builds upon Google's previous investments in India, including the Google for India Digitization Fund announced in 2020, through which the company committed to investing approximately $10 billion (₹75,000 crore) over 5-7 years. That fund focused on enabling affordable access and information for every Indian in their own language, building new products and services relevant to India's unique needs, empowering businesses in their digital transformation, and leveraging technology and AI for social good.
Google has been operating in India since 2004 and has offices in five key cities across the country. With this new AI hub, Google aims to further strengthen its presence and contribute to India's emergence as a global technology leader. The move also comes amid increasing competition among tech giants investing heavily in new data center infrastructure to meet the growing demand for AI services.
