Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw urged Google to manufacture servers in India, improve energy efficiency under the India AI Mission, and optimise water use in data centre operations during the Google Cloud India AI Hub groundbreaking ceremony in Vizag on Tuesday.
Vaishnaw said Visakhapatnam could soon be known as “AI Patnam,” as he highlighted the city's growing role in India's artificial intelligence push.
"...CM built Cyberabad, part of Hyderabad, that cyber tower which became the journey of our IT services and today he is building the AI Data Hub here. I think Visakhapatnam will be called as 'AI Patnam'. What is Visakhapatnam today, like Cyberabad it will become AI Patnam'.." he said.
Highlighting geopolitical uncertainties, he added, "In today's world, which is full of geopolitical uncertainty, entire world is looking for a trusted partner where IP rights will be respected, where the security concerns will be met, where you can believe the supply chain is in trusted hands, auditable, properly checked, verifiable. That kind of supply chain, that kind of value chain is possible only in India."
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On Tuesday, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Tuesday laid the foundation for a $5 billion Google Artificial Intelligence data centre near Visakhapatnam and said it will be a growth engine for India, PTI reported.
"This is a great day. Historic day for all of us. Unforgettable in Andhra Pradesh history - April 28, 2026 - will be remembered forever in the history of India and in the history of Andhra Pradesh. Google AI data centre will be a growth engine for India," Naidu said while addressing the foundation ceremony.
The Rs 1.35 lakh crore Google data centre investment will emerge as the pride of North Andhra region, and termed it as Asia's biggest such facility, he remarked.
Naidu said that the project began in September 2025 and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate it on September 28, 2028.
With the help of Google's innovations, he said the state wants to produce the best models in various realms and expressed confidence that every citizen will soon have an AI doctor, AI personal assistant and other forms of AI assistance.
The 1 GW capacity data centre is expected to emerge as a major step in India's digital infrastructure growth. It aims to be one of the largest AI data centres in the country and will provide advanced AI cloud infrastructure and large-scale data storage capabilities, the news portal said citing an earlier official release.
The facility will be built across 600 acres in Tarluvada, Adavivaram and Rambilli villages, with other private partners, aiming to build a larger multi-gigawatt digital ecosystem in the state.
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