Inside Google’s $15bn Visakhapatnam AI hub: How Andhra Pradesh won the hyperscale race

In one of the most significant digital infrastructure commitments ever announced in India, Google LLC revealed plans to build a 1-gigawatt (GW) hyperscale data centre and its first artificial intelligence hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The project, which carries an estimated investment value of around $15 billion (₹1.3 lakh crore) over five years from 2026 to 2030, was announced during the Bharat AI Shakti event in New Delhi.

According to the Union Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development, Dr Pemmasani Chandrasekhar, the investment is expected to generate roughly ₹10,000 crore in revenue for the state and create between 5,000–6,000 direct jobs and 20,000–30,000 total jobs including indirect employment. Speaking after the event, he described the data-centre hub as a “defining milestone in Swarandhra Pradesh’s journey of progress and self-reliance,” underlining the state’s growing digital economy ambitions.

Why is Visakhapatnam being chosen for India’s first gigawatt-scale AI data centre?

Visakhapatnam’s rise as a technology destination has been steady but under-the-radar. The coastal city offers a unique blend of advantages: proximity to submarine cable landing points, access to reliable power, and strong political backing from both the central and state governments.

State officials have long positioned Visakhapatnam as the future “digital gateway of eastern India.” The proposed Google facility reportedly spans several potential locations including Tarluvada, Adivivaram, and Rambilli–Achyutapuram, with more than 300 acres earmarked for construction.

Industry insiders say Google has sought a 2.1 GW power allocation, which would allow for redundancy and scalability. A large portion of this will likely come from renewable sources—solar and wind capacity across coastal Andhra—making it India’s first hyperscale AI hub aligned with Google’s 24×7 carbon-free energy goal.

What economic and employment impact could this project have on Andhra Pradesh?

Officials expect the multiplier effect to ripple far beyond Visakhapatnam. The presence of a hyperscale data centre typically boosts ancillary industries such as power-equipment manufacturing, logistics, cooling-systems supply, construction, and network-infrastructure development.

Andhra Pradesh’s IT Minister Nara Lokesh noted that the project’s benefits would reach smaller towns through local vendor participation, workforce upskilling, and educational collaborations. The state plans to set up technical training programs in partnership with Google to prepare youth for roles in cloud operations, AI engineering, and data-centre management.

Economists tracking the project believe it could lift Andhra Pradesh’s GSDP growth by 0.5 to 0.7 percentage points annually once the facility becomes operational. It also provides a new fiscal anchor for the Naidu government’s “Digital Andhra 2047” vision, which aims to reduce the state’s dependency on agriculture and traditional manufacturing.

How does this investment compare with Google’s global and Indian digital-infrastructure strategy?

Globally, Google Cloud has been on a steady expansion spree—building hyperscale data centres across the US, Singapore, Finland, and Chile. The Visakhapatnam project represents its largest single-site investment in India, surpassing its existing smaller-scale data facilities in Mumbai and Delhi.

Google’s India strategy has evolved from consumer-driven to infrastructure-driven. Earlier initiatives such as “Google for India,” “Digital Unlocked,” and “India Digitization Fund” laid the groundwork for deeper AI and cloud integration. By positioning this AI hub in Andhra Pradesh, the company is signalling a shift from front-end digital access toward deep-tech enablement and sovereign AI compute capacity.

The project aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “AI for All” mission and complements ongoing federal initiatives under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) to create a National AI Compute Grid—a distributed network of high-performance computing clusters for startups and research institutions.

What are the financial projections and investment breakdown behind the ₹10,000 crore figure?

The Union minister’s projection of ₹10,000 crore in state-level revenue likely includes taxes, land lease proceeds, employment income, and indirect GSDP effects. Out of the $15 billion headline investment, sources familiar with the project estimate that roughly $6–7 billion will go into core data-centre construction, while another $8–9 billion could cover renewable power assets, connectivity projects, and AI research partnerships.

State authorities are believed to be finalizing the power purchase agreements, water allocation plans, and incentive packages. While Google LLC is not publicly listed, its parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has seen a mild uptick in investor sentiment following the announcement, with analysts interpreting it as part of the company’s global AI infrastructure push.

Alphabet’s stock has gained nearly 4 percent over the past week, outperforming the NASDAQ-100’s 2 percent rise, reflecting institutional confidence in its long-term AI capital spending plan. Fund flows from large US ETFs show modest buying momentum as investors price in AI-driven revenue expansion for Google Cloud over the next decade.

What challenges could derail the project’s 2026–2030 timeline?

While the announcement was met with optimism, execution risks remain. Large-scale projects in India often face delays due to land acquisition bottlenecks and environmental approvals.

In this case, farmland donors from the Achyutapuram belt have already sought re-evaluation of compensation packages, prompting Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to promise equitable settlement and job support. Political stability will be crucial since the project’s five-year timeline spans the entire current state administration cycle.

Infrastructure readiness also poses a challenge. A 1-GW campus requires massive power draw, redundant fiber networks, and efficient cooling systems. Experts note that India has limited experience running AI-optimized data centres at this scale. Any slippage in power availability or cable deployment could affect the rollout timeline.

How does this project align with India’s push for AI self-reliance and digital sovereignty?

The Visakhapatnam hub is expected to serve as Google’s primary AI training and inference facility in South Asia, supporting large language model operations, enterprise AI solutions, and government applications.

Industry observers say the project symbolically marks India’s entry into the global AI compute league, joining countries like the United States, Singapore, and Ireland that host multi-gigawatt data clusters. It also advances the central government’s goal of reducing cross-border data flows and improving AI sovereignty and compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023.

For Andhra Pradesh, this is not just an infrastructure investment but a reputational leap into India’s innovation core. As global tech majors like Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle expand in southern India, Google’s move cements the region as the next AI-cloud corridor.

How are policymakers and industry leaders framing the project’s national significance?

At the announcement event, Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, IT Minister Nara Lokesh, and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian underscored the project’s strategic value. They described it as a defining moment for India’s AI ecosystem, promising to catalyze new investment in computing capacity and digital infrastructure.

Thomas Kurian highlighted that Google Cloud aims to make India a core node in its global AI network, serving developers and enterprises across Asia-Pacific. He pointed out that the Visakhapatnam facility will host the same generation of AI-optimized hardware used in Google’s Oregon and Hamina data centres, ensuring performance parity for Indian clients.

What could the Google–Andhra partnership mean for India’s future AI investment narrative?

Beyond the immediate economic impact, this project signals a shift in India’s digital policy mindset—from software outsourcing to AI-infrastructure sovereignty. By backing the project, both New Delhi and Amaravati are sending a message that India intends to be a producer, not just a consumer, of advanced AI compute power.

If execution matches the ambition, the Visakhapatnam AI hub could trigger a new wave of investment across tier-II cities, balancing India’s digital economy beyond the traditional metro corridors. Analysts see this as a long-term test case for the federal and state governments’ capacity to collaborate on large technology infrastructure with foreign investors.

For Google, the project fits within its broader strategy of expanding AI capacity in emerging markets with favorable policy frameworks and growing digital demand. India’s massive data ecosystem and rising AI workload make it a logical next frontier for hyperscale build-outs.

The coming months will reveal how quickly groundwork progresses in Visakhapatnam and whether Google’s ambition can translate into a sustainable AI ecosystem for India. But one thing is clear—the ₹1.3 lakh crore AI hub has already placed Andhra Pradesh at the centre of India’s next technology renaissance.

In one of the most significant digital infrastructure commitments ever announced in India, Google LLC revealed plans to build a 1-gigawatt (GW) hyperscale data centre and its first artificial intelligence hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The project, which carries an estimated investment value of around $15 billion (₹1.3 lakh crore) over five years from 2026 to 2030, was announced during the Bharat AI Shakti event in New Delhi.

According to the Union Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development, Dr Pemmasani Chandrasekhar, the investment is expected to generate roughly ₹10,000 crore in revenue for the state and create between 5,000–6,000 direct jobs and 20,000–30,000 total jobs including indirect employment. Speaking after the event, he described the data-centre hub as a “defining milestone in Swarandhra Pradesh’s journey of progress and self-reliance,” underlining the state’s growing digital economy ambitions.

Why is Visakhapatnam being chosen for India’s first gigawatt-scale AI data centre?

Visakhapatnam’s rise as a technology destination has been steady but under-the-radar. The coastal city offers a unique blend of advantages: proximity to submarine cable landing points, access to reliable power, and strong political backing from both the central and state governments.

State officials have long positioned Visakhapatnam as the future “digital gateway of eastern India.” The proposed Google facility reportedly spans several potential locations including Tarluvada, Adivivaram, and Rambilli–Achyutapuram, with more than 300 acres earmarked for construction.

Industry insiders say Google has sought a 2.1 GW power allocation, which would allow for redundancy and scalability. A large portion of this will likely come from renewable sources—solar and wind capacity across coastal Andhra—making it India’s first hyperscale AI hub aligned with Google’s 24×7 carbon-free energy goal.

What economic and employment impact could this project have on Andhra Pradesh?

Officials expect the multiplier effect to ripple far beyond Visakhapatnam. The presence of a hyperscale data centre typically boosts ancillary industries such as power-equipment manufacturing, logistics, cooling-systems supply, construction, and network-infrastructure development.

Andhra Pradesh’s IT Minister Nara Lokesh noted that the project’s benefits would reach smaller towns through local vendor participation, workforce upskilling, and educational collaborations. The state plans to set up technical training programs in partnership with Google to prepare youth for roles in cloud operations, AI engineering, and data-centre management.

Economists tracking the project believe it could lift Andhra Pradesh’s GSDP growth by 0.5 to 0.7 percentage points annually once the facility becomes operational. It also provides a new fiscal anchor for the Naidu government’s “Digital Andhra 2047” vision, which aims to reduce the state’s dependency on agriculture and traditional manufacturing.

How does this investment compare with Google’s global and Indian digital-infrastructure strategy?

Globally, Google Cloud has been on a steady expansion spree—building hyperscale data centres across the US, Singapore, Finland, and Chile. The Visakhapatnam project represents its largest single-site investment in India, surpassing its existing smaller-scale data facilities in Mumbai and Delhi.

Google’s India strategy has evolved from consumer-driven to infrastructure-driven. Earlier initiatives such as “Google for India,” “Digital Unlocked,” and “India Digitization Fund” laid the groundwork for deeper AI and cloud integration. By positioning this AI hub in Andhra Pradesh, the company is signalling a shift from front-end digital access toward deep-tech enablement and sovereign AI compute capacity.

The project aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “AI for All” mission and complements ongoing federal initiatives under the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) to create a National AI Compute Grid—a distributed network of high-performance computing clusters for startups and research institutions.

What are the financial projections and investment breakdown behind the ₹10,000 crore figure?

The Union minister’s projection of ₹10,000 crore in state-level revenue likely includes taxes, land lease proceeds, employment income, and indirect GSDP effects. Out of the $15 billion headline investment, sources familiar with the project estimate that roughly $6–7 billion will go into core data-centre construction, while another $8–9 billion could cover renewable power assets, connectivity projects, and AI research partnerships.

State authorities are believed to be finalizing the power purchase agreements, water allocation plans, and incentive packages. While Google LLC is not publicly listed, its parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) has seen a mild uptick in investor sentiment following the announcement, with analysts interpreting it as part of the company’s global AI infrastructure push.

Alphabet’s stock has gained nearly 4 percent over the past week, outperforming the NASDAQ-100’s 2 percent rise, reflecting institutional confidence in its long-term AI capital spending plan. Fund flows from large US ETFs show modest buying momentum as investors price in AI-driven revenue expansion for Google Cloud over the next decade.

What challenges could derail the project’s 2026–2030 timeline?

While the announcement was met with optimism, execution risks remain. Large-scale projects in India often face delays due to land acquisition bottlenecks and environmental approvals.

In this case, farmland donors from the Achyutapuram belt have already sought re-evaluation of compensation packages, prompting Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to promise equitable settlement and job support. Political stability will be crucial since the project’s five-year timeline spans the entire current state administration cycle.

Infrastructure readiness also poses a challenge. A 1-GW campus requires massive power draw, redundant fiber networks, and efficient cooling systems. Experts note that India has limited experience running AI-optimized data centres at this scale. Any slippage in power availability or cable deployment could affect the rollout timeline.

How does this project align with India’s push for AI self-reliance and digital sovereignty?

The Visakhapatnam hub is expected to serve as Google’s primary AI training and inference facility in South Asia, supporting large language model operations, enterprise AI solutions, and government applications.

Industry observers say the project symbolically marks India’s entry into the global AI compute league, joining countries like the United States, Singapore, and Ireland that host multi-gigawatt data clusters. It also advances the central government’s goal of reducing cross-border data flows and improving AI sovereignty and compliance with the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023.

For Andhra Pradesh, this is not just an infrastructure investment but a reputational leap into India’s innovation core. As global tech majors like Microsoft, Amazon, and Oracle expand in southern India, Google’s move cements the region as the next AI-cloud corridor.

How are policymakers and industry leaders framing the project’s national significance?

At the announcement event, Union Minister for Railways, Information & Broadcasting, Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, IT Minister Nara Lokesh, and Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian underscored the project’s strategic value. They described it as a defining moment for India’s AI ecosystem, promising to catalyze new investment in computing capacity and digital infrastructure.

Thomas Kurian highlighted that Google Cloud aims to make India a core node in its global AI network, serving developers and enterprises across Asia-Pacific. He pointed out that the Visakhapatnam facility will host the same generation of AI-optimized hardware used in Google’s Oregon and Hamina data centres, ensuring performance parity for Indian clients.

What could the Google–Andhra partnership mean for India’s future AI investment narrative?

Beyond the immediate economic impact, this project signals a shift in India’s digital policy mindset—from software outsourcing to AI-infrastructure sovereignty. By backing the project, both New Delhi and Amaravati are sending a message that India intends to be a producer, not just a consumer, of advanced AI compute power.

If execution matches the ambition, the Visakhapatnam AI hub could trigger a new wave of investment across tier-II cities, balancing India’s digital economy beyond the traditional metro corridors. Analysts see this as a long-term test case for the federal and state governments’ capacity to collaborate on large technology infrastructure with foreign investors.

For Google, the project fits within its broader strategy of expanding AI capacity in emerging markets with favorable policy frameworks and growing digital demand. India’s massive data ecosystem and rising AI workload make it a logical next frontier for hyperscale build-outs.

The coming months will reveal how quickly groundwork progresses in Visakhapatnam and whether Google’s ambition can translate into a sustainable AI ecosystem for India. But one thing is clear—the ₹1.3 lakh crore AI hub has already placed Andhra Pradesh at the centre of India’s next technology renaissance.