Reliance to invest Rs 1.6 lakh crore in setting up data centre in Andhra Pradesh

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is set to invest Rs 1.6 lakh crore in setting up a 1.5-gigawatt data centre cluster and a captive solar battery storage system in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. This will be India’s largest data centre cluster, eclipsing Google’s 1-GW project being set up in the same region with an investment of $15 billion.

Reliance plans to establish a giga-scale artificial intelligence data centre cluster in three phases, and has sought 935 acres of land for the cluster, including 300 acres for the first phase and 635 acres for the second phase. It has also requested 1 acre for a cable landing station and 80 acres for a desalination plant, reports said.

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In the first phase, a 500-MW data centre is proposed at Polipalli village, while the second phase is expected to add 1 GW of capacity at Bhogapuram East and West. The entire cluster is planned near Visakhapatnam’s upcoming airport at Bhogapuram.

Google has announced a $15 billion investment for a 1-GW cluster in the region. Andhra Pradesh government has outlined a long-term vision to develop a multi-gigawatt digital ecosystem with a total capacity of around 6.5 gigawatts, positioning Andhra Pradesh as a major data hub.

Sify is set to build a 500-MW data centre, while Digital Connexion (1 GW) and Anant Raj Cloud (around 300 MW) are also in the pipeline.

In a separate development, Meta has announced two energy partnerships to deliver reliable power for its AI infrastructure and data centres’ needs by advancing innovative energy generation and storage.

Meta said it is partnering with Overview Energy to bring up to 1 GW of space solar energy to Earth.

It is also partnering with Noon Energy to deploy up to 1 GW/100 GWh of ultra-long-duration energy storage enabling 24/7 clean, reliable power for its next-generation AI data centers.