Google AI Hub in India: Powering the Viksit Bharat vision and economy

Google has announced that it will invest USD 15 billion over five years (2026–2030) to build a massive AI hub and data-centre campus in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh — its largest strategic investment in India to date. 

The project will include a 1-gigawatt hyperscale data centre cluster initially, with plans to scale to multiple gigawatts over time. This compute capacity, combined with new subsea cable infrastructure and clean energy systems, is intended to support intensive AI workloads for Indian enterprises and users. 

Digital backbone, compute power & connectivity

Google describes the hub as a “digital backbone” for India, designed to bring AI infrastructure closer to local businesses and users, enable low-latency services, and reduce dependence on faraway data centres. The investment also includes a new international subsea gateway to land multiple submarine cables in Visakhapatnam, strengthening India’s connectivity ecosystem. 

While the hub will join Google’s global AI infrastructure network (present across about a dozen countries), the Visakhapatnam site is being positioned as the company’s largest AI hub outside the U.S. 

Strategic & economic imperatives

India has become a logical choice for such a venture because of:

• Its rapidly growing internet user base, projected to exceed 900 million this year (according to industry forecasts).

• A vast domestic talent pool and a dynamic tech ecosystem.
  
  

• Its importance in the global digital economy and rising demand for AI and cloud services.
  
  

The Google AI hub is expected to catalyse applications across sectors such as healthcare, education, finance, and entertainment, helping India strengthen its position as a technology leader.

On the Andhra Pradesh front, the state government sees the project as a major opportunity to attract high-value investment, generate jobs, and embed itself in the digital infrastructure map of India.

Partners, jobs & fiscal impact

Google is collaborating with AdaniConneX (a JV of Adani Group) and Bharti Airtel in executing the project. (news / press) Google and its partners have signed a MoU with the Government of Andhra Pradesh.

According to the Ministry of Communications, the 1-GW hyperscale data centre is expected to generate about Rs10,000 crore in revenue for the state. The same release also cites estimates of 5,000–6,000 direct jobs and 20,000–30,000 total jobs in the region. 

At present, Google already has a significant presence in India, employing ~14,000 people, along with its cloud infrastructure operating regions in Mumbai and Delhi. But this investment takes its India play to a new scale — bridging global AI infrastructure with local demand.

Trade-offs, risks & sovereignty questions

This ambitious plan comes at a moment when the Indian government and policy voices are pushing for “Swadeshi” tech, encouraging greater reliance on indigenous platforms rather than foreign ones. This presents a tension: while Google brings deep AI expertise and capital, some stakeholders may question reliance on a multinational for critical infrastructure.

Furthermore, while the hub is marketed as democratising AI, success depends on ecosystem adoption — enterprises must trust Google’s privacy, compliance, and data localisation practices.

The road ahead

Is Google building a strategic AI brain for India, or merely a sprawling cloud campus? If the deployment meets its promise, it could be a keystone in the Viksit Bharat narrative. But the real test will be whether Indian firms, governments, and developers embrace it, trust its governance, and build atop it.