Reliance Venture To Build $11 Billion AI Data Center In India

Digital Connexion, a joint venture between Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd., Brookfield Asset Management Ltd. and Digital Realty Trust Inc. has signed a pact to invest $11 billion by 2030 for developing a data center in southern India, marking the latest investment in one of technology’s fastest-growing arenas. 

The closely held firm will construct a massive 1 gigawatt campus of artificial intelligence-native data centers in a facility spanning 400 acres (1.6187 square kilometers) in Visakhapatnam in the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Digital Connexion said in a press statement on Wednesday.

It signed a memorandum of understanding with the Andhra Pradesh Economic Development Board, it added.

The announcement mirrors the global trend where trillions of dollars are flowing into data center construction as governments and large corporations seek to keep up in an unprecedented AI hardware arms race.

Andhra Pradesh is also emerging as a key destination, with Alphabet Inc.’s Google last month unveiling plans to invest about $15 billion to build an AI infrastructure hub in Visakhapatnam over the next five years.

The Reliance joint venture joins a growing cohort of global tech giants, primarily US-based, who are investing heavily in India and positioning the nation as one of the biggest beneficiaries of the worldwide AI boom. 

Amazon.com Inc. is planning to invest $12.7 billion to build its cloud infrastructure in India by 2030, while ChatGPT-creator OpenAI is seeking to set up a 1 gigawatt data center.

Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. last week secured $1 billion from TPG Inc. to accelerate its own push into AI data centers.

Investments in India’s overall data center market are expected to exceed $100 billion by 2027, according to estimates by CBRE Group Inc.