Overview
- Google's AI data centre hub in Visakhapatnam, which held a foundation ceremony on Tuesday, is a $15 billion build planned over five years.
- The campus spans roughly 600 acres across Rambilli, Adavivaram and Tarluvada with an initial 1 GW of compute capacity and a planned ramp to 5 GW.
- AdaniConneX is set to provide data centre infrastructure and renewable power, while Airtel’s Nxtra will run fibre networks and an undersea cable landing station that links ocean cables to land.
- Former IAS officer EAS Sarma has asked the environment ministry to revoke approvals, alleging Andhra’s regulator split the project into smaller parts to avoid a tougher review and warning a 1 GW site could need 2.7–4.1 million gallons of water a day.
- State subsidies for land, power, water and taxes and a Union Budget tax holiday for foreign cloud operators to 2047 support the build, while the petition could force a review that slows deployment in a country with about 1.3 GW of current data centre capacity.