$15 billion investment: Google to kick off data centre project on April 28

NEW DELHI: Six months after the formal signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Google and the Andhra Pradesh government to set up a data centre hub, the global tech giant will formally kick off the project on April 28.

The groundbreaking for the Google data centre hub of 1 GW capacity will be held in the presence of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu and the company's top brass, including Thomas Kurian. The big-ticket project, which will be set up with an investment of $15 billion, making it the largest single foreign direct investment in India, will comprise three data centre campuses near Visakhapatnam - at Adavivaram village (Visakhapatnam district), Tarluvada village (Visakhapatnam district) and Rambilli (Anakapalli district). The land has been handed over to Raiden Infotech India Private Limited, Google's subsidiary, which is implementing the project. According to sources, the formal kick-off will be either at the Tarluvada or Rambilli site. A senior official, who did not wish to be identified, told ET, "The state government has allotted 174.8 acres at Rambilli, 160 acres at Adavivaram and Mudasarlova, and 266.6 acres at Tarluvada."

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The three data centres, with a combined capacity of 1 GW, are expected to be commissioned by July 2028. The three high-end data centres will entail the installation and landing of three high-capacity submarine cables, dedicated cable landing stations, and high-capacity metro fibre lines and telecommunications infrastructure. The state government and Google had signed the MoU in New Delhi on October 14. Within six months, the project will now formally start on April 28. Raiden has partnered with Adani Infra (India) Limited to set up the data centre hub. As per the request of Raiden Infotech India, the Andhra Pradesh Industrial Infrastructure Corporation (APIIC) has approved the allotment of 601.4 acres of land for the hub to Adani Infra Limited. Three Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs), fully owned by Adani Infra Limited, have been formed. The land at the three locations has been allocated to Vizag Hyperscale Data Centre Park Limited (160 acres at Adavivaram and Mudasarlova), Vizag Mega Data Centre Park Limited (266.6 acres at Tarluvada), and Vizag Rambilli Data Centre Park Limited (174.8 acres at Rambilli).

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So far, Google and its subsidiaries have data centres in 11 countries - the United States, Taiwan, Japan, Singapore, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Belgium, and Chile, spread across 29 geographic locations. The data centre cluster in Visakhapatnam is expected to be Asia's largest.