India's AI push gets $15 bn Google boost

Move raises Big Tech's total India AI investment plan to $25 bn

- Shouvik Das, Jas Bardia & Nehal Chaliawala

India's sprint to reach global AI hub status just got a $15-billion booster shot, with Google unveiling plans to build massive data centres and AI computing infrastructure at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

The Mountain View, California-based tech giant's largest investment in India advances Big Tech's 'announced' AI infrastructure bets in the country to $25 billion this year, with another $6.5 billion likely but unconfirmed. The India push by the American majors comes in the backdrop of US President Donald Trump urging them to invest more at home.

Google said on Tuesday that its planned facility "will include a purpose-built datacentre campus, adding gigawatt-scale compute capacity to help meet demand for digital services across India and around the world". For this venture, the company will partner with Indian conglomerate Adani Enterprises' datacentre business and telecom servi ces operator Bharti Airtel.