Google starts work on largest AI hub outside US
Google has begun construction of its largest artificial intelligence (AI) hub outside the United States, marking a major expansion of global AI infrastructure and a significant investment in India’s digital economy.
The $15 billion project, located in Visakhapatnam, will be developed over several years and is expected to become one of the world’s most advanced AI data centre ecosystems.
The hub will feature gigawatt-scale computing capacity, spread across multiple data centre campuses, enabling large-scale AI model training and deployment for both enterprise and consumer applications.
Strategic investment in AI growth
The project is being built in partnership with companies including AdaniConneX and Airtel, highlighting a collaborative approach to scaling infrastructure. Officials say the hub will significantly boost India’s position in the global AI race, providing critical computing power for startups, researchers, and multinational firms. It is also expected to become one of the largest foreign direct investments in India’s technology sector.
Beyond infrastructure, the AI hub is projected to drive job creation, skills development, and regional economic growth, transforming Visakhapatnam into a major technology and innovation centre.
Leaders have compared its potential impact to earlier tech-driven transformations in India, suggesting it could reshape the country’s digital landscape over the next decade.
Google has emphasized that the facility will include some of its “greenest” data centres, incorporating renewable energy, energy storage, and grid-support systems to offset the high power demands of AI computing.
The launch comes amid intensifying global competition in artificial intelligence, with major tech firms racing to build large-scale infrastructure to support increasingly powerful AI models.
By establishing its biggest AI hub outside the US, Google is signaling a strategic shift toward geographically distributed AI capacity, reducing reliance on US-based infrastructure while tapping into fast-growing digital markets like India.
