Google to build AI hub in India, largest outside US with $15B pledges

ANKARA

Google on Tuesday announced plans to build the first artificial intelligence (AI) hub in India, pledging an investment of around $15B over the next five years.

A statement issued by Google said the hub, located in the southern city of Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh state, “will combine powerful AI infrastructure, data center capacity, new large-scale energy sources and an expanded fiber-optic network, all in one place.”

“This investment of approximately $15 billion over five years (2026-2030) is Google’s largest investment in India to date…,” the company statement said.

Quoting its analysis, the company said the AI hub is “expected to generate at least $15 billion over five years in American gross domestic product because of new economic activity from increased cloud and AI adoption, as well as the American talent and resources involved in developing and operating the AI hub.”

“This initiative creates substantial economic and societal opportunities for both India and the United States — while pioneering a generational shift in AI capability,” it said.

Providing details about the AI hub, it said the investment includes “construction of a new international subsea gateway, including multiple international subsea cables to land in Visakhapatnam on India’s eastern coast — connecting to Google’s more than two million miles of existing terrestrial and subsea cables.”

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who said he spoke to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, called the announcement a “landmark development.”

“This hub combines gigawatt-scale compute capacity, a new international subsea gateway, and large-scale energy infrastructure. Through it we will bring our industry-leading technology to enterprises and users in India, accelerating AI innovation and driving growth across the country,” he wrote on the US social company X.