India among frontrunners in global race for AI data centres

New Delhi, July 9 (IANS) India has emerged as one of the leading contenders in the race for AI data centres that will power the next generation of computing, with global technology giants including Google, Microsoft and Amazon — alongside major domestic conglomerates — committing billions of dollars to set up AI-ready data centre infrastructure in the country, according to an article in The Citizen.

It highlights that much of this investment is concentrated in coastal cities such as Mumbai and Chennai, whose proximity to undersea cable networks makes them ideal locations for hyperscale data centres. Similarly, among the growing hubs is Visakhapatnam on the country’s eastern coast in Andhra Pradesh.

These facilities require vast amounts of electricity and water to cool specialised, heat-intensive computing hardware. They also depend on robust power grids, high-capacity fibre-optic connectivity and increasing access to renewable energy.

Among the growing hubs is Visakhapatnam (Vizag), the economic powerhouse of the southern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh.

Google has committed $15 billion to the region, while the Adani Group has also announced plans to invest $100 billion in building a 5GW AI platform by 2035.

Inland technology centres such as Hyderabad and Pune are rapidly expanding their cloud computing and AI infrastructure, broadening India’s digital footprint beyond its coastline, the article further states.

The government’s supportive policy framework is playing a key role to incentivise these projects with concessional long-term financing for developers and generous tax incentives, including tax holidays until 2047 for companies investing in green AI infrastructure.

Having attracted unprecedented investment in hyperscale AI projects, India’s operational data centre capacity is projected to surge to about 6.5GW by the end of the decade.

With massive investment, supportive government policy and a rapidly expanding digital ecosystem, the country is well on course to establish itself as one of the world’s leading AI powers-ranking behind only the US and China in global AI competitiveness, the article observes.

–IANS

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