Meta leases first AI data center in India from Reliance

Meta announced an statement connected Wednesday to lease its archetypal AI-enabled information halfway successful India from Reliance Industries, with the installation to beryllium built successful Jamnagar, Gujarat, astatine 168 megawatts of capacity.

Under the deal, end-to-end work for the installation falls to Reliance, covering everything from operation and plan to powerfulness sourcing, connectivity, and day-to-day operations, the institution said. Cooling astatine the installation volition trust connected desalinated seawater, and the field volition tally connected renewable power, with Meta bearing each associated vigor and h2o costs. Construction is expected to wrapper up successful 2 years, aft which capableness tin beryllium expanded, Reliance said.

"We're arrogant to beryllium moving with Reliance to physique our archetypal AI-enabled information halfway successful India," Meta laminitis and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said successful a statement. "This world-class installation successful Jamnagar volition assistance america standard our AI infrastructure globally portion deepening our semipermanent concern successful India's economy."

In a related announcement, Meta disclosed deals with 2 Indian cleanable vigor firms totaling adjacent to 1 gigawatt of caller capacity: 837 megawatts of star and upwind procreation from CleanMax, spanning projects successful Rajasthan and Karnataka, and 88 megawatts from Fourth Partner Energy crossed Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. Both agreements enactment Meta's broader committedness to sourcing cleanable and renewable vigor equivalent to each of its planetary operations, the institution said.

The woody extends a narration betwixt Meta and Reliance that began with Meta's $5.7 cardinal concern successful Jio Platforms, Reliance's telecom and integer services business, successful 2020. Last year, according to Reuters, the 2 companies formed a associated task aimed astatine gathering AI-powered platforms for Indian enterprises, with Reliance's Llama models serving arsenic the underlying technology. The task was seeded with a combined 8.55 cardinal rupees, with Reliance contributing 70 percent of that full and Meta the remaining 30 percent.

India has attracted a surge of information halfway concern from planetary exertion companies. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, OpenAI, and Uber person each announced AI oregon unreality infrastructure investments successful the country, according to TechCrunch. Government figures amusement the country's full information halfway capableness has grown astir fourfold since 2020, climbing from astir 375 megawatts to astir 1.5 gigawatts successful 2025, and analysts expect that buildout to accelerate further, with immoderate projections placing capableness supra 8 gigawatts earlier 2030.

Meta has been expanding its AI infrastructure spending, raising its projected superior expenditure for the afloat twelvemonth to betwixt $125 cardinal and $145 billion, with the company's CFO Susan Li citing anticipated rises successful constituent costs and further information halfway spending arsenic drivers.