Google’s parent company Alphabet is preparing to invest $6 billion in a massive data centre project in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, making it the tech giant’s largest such investment in Asia, government sources have confirmed.
The investment, which is yet to be formally announced, includes a dedicated $2 billion outlay to create renewable energy capacity to power the 1-gigawatt data centre. Once operational, it will represent the highest-capacity facility Google has built across the region, surpassing existing centres in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.
Sources revealed that the data centre is being planned as part of Alphabet’s broader expansion strategy, under which the firm aims to spend $75 billion to ramp up global data infrastructure. The Visakhapatnam site is expected to be a cornerstone in this strategy, tapping into India’s expanding digital economy and skilled workforce.
Although both Google and the Andhra Pradesh government have refrained from making the development public, the project may be formally unveiled in October.
“There are certain announcements which are not yet public. In October, we will make those announcements,” said Nara Lokesh, Andhra Pradesh’s Minister of Information Technology, currently in Singapore.
He also confirmed the state's plans to build three new cable landing stations in Visakhapatnam to support the forthcoming data infrastructure. “We want to create enough of cable network, which will be two times what Mumbai has today,” Lokesh added.
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Cable landing stations are critical to hosting equipment that connects undersea cables to land-based data infrastructure, ensuring high-speed connectivity to global networks.
Officials privy to the plans stated that the project will be backed by a combination of renewable energy and limited coal-fired power to meet initial capacity requirements. “We’re working on building energy infrastructure that can meet data centres’ sustainability requirements,” Lokesh said, highlighting that the sector’s energy demand in India is projected to rise to 10 gigawatts over the next five years.
While the use of renewable energy will be prioritised, Lokesh acknowledged that coal-generated power may temporarily supplement demand in the early phases.
The potential announcement follows Alphabet’s reiteration in April of its commitment to aggressively scale its global data capacity, despite economic uncertainty and sector-wide cost rationalisation across Big Tech firms.
The Andhra Pradesh project aligns with the Centre’s aim to position India as a regional digital infrastructure hub, offering the dual advantage of data sovereignty and green transition.
Should the Google project proceed as planned, it would mark a significant economic boost for the southern state and cement Visakhapatnam’s emergence as a new high-technology corridor.
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