Google to build ₹52,000 crore data centre in Andhra Pradesh’s Vizag

New Delhi: Google is preparing to pour in one of its biggest infrastructure bets in Asia, and it's happening in India. The tech giant is set to invest nearly Rs 52,200 crore (around $6 billion) in building a large-scale data centre in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. This will be Google's first data centre project in the country, and sources say it will be the largest of its kind in Asia in terms of both capacity and investment.

The information comes from two Andhra Pradesh government officials who spoke to Reuters. They said that Google will also invest around Rs 17,400 crore (approximately $2 billion) into renewable energy that will power the new data facility. Alphabet, Google's parent company, hasn’t yet made any public announcement.

The planned data centre will have a total capacity of 1 gigawatt and is expected to transform Visakhapatnam into a key tech hub on the east coast. Andhra Pradesh officials have said that the project includes not just the data facility itself, but also the energy infrastructure to power it.

This comes at a time when Google's parent Alphabet is ramping up its data centre expansion across Asia, including projects in Malaysia, Thailand, and Singapore. The Visakhapatnam site, however, could become a flagship, as it is reportedly the biggest among them.

The data centre would also include cable landing stations. These are facilities where undersea cables connect to the land internet infrastructure. According to Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh, the state is aiming to have three such stations in Visakhapatnam to boost internet connectivity. He told Reuters, "We want to create enough of cable network, which will be two times what Mumbai has today.”

After losing Hyderabad to Telangana during the 2014 state split, Andhra Pradesh has been actively looking for large investments to drive growth and fix its fiscal challenges. The Google deal is part of a broader push to turn the state into a data centre powerhouse.

Nara Lokesh said the state has already secured deals for data centres with a combined capacity of 1.6 GW, with the goal of hitting 6 GW over the next five years. For comparison, India as a whole currently has about 1.4 GW of operational data centre capacity, according to Anarock, a real estate consultancy.

Lokesh also added that some of the electricity needs will still be met by coal power, because data centres require stable energy supply round the clock. But most of the new power is expected to come from green energy sources. "Majority will end up being actually green energy, and that's the unique value proposition that we bring to the table," he said.

If completed on time, the project could reshape the digital infrastructure landscape of eastern India. With high-capacity fibre, undersea cable connectivity, and massive green power backing, Visakhapatnam could become a go-to location for global cloud providers, not just Google.

This also means thousands of new jobs during the construction phase and later in maintenance and support roles. It could also attract other players in cloud computing, AI research, and software services.

The timing of the project matters too. In April, Alphabet had confirmed it would continue with its $75 billion global data centre expansion, even in the middle of economic uncertainty in the United States.

As of now, the official announcement is awaited. But if all goes according to plan, Google could be setting up one of Asia’s largest and greenest data centres right on India’s east coast.