Meta Taps Reliance to Build Its First AI Data Center in India
In Focus
- The two companies will build a 168-megawatt AI data center in Jamnagar, Gujarat
- Meta will meet all energy and water costs required to operate the facility
- Reliance will support the construction of renewable power, connectivity, and operations
Meta has inked a data center deal with Reliance Industries to secure the compute power it needs to scale AI systems. The deal is the first AI infrastructure collaboration with an Indian company. Under the partnership with Reliance, Meta will lease the 168-megawatt compute capacity from the AI data center in Gujarat’s Jamnagar area.
“We’re proud to be working with Reliance to build our first AI-enabled data center in India. This world-class facility in Jamnagar will help us scale our AI infrastructure globally while deepening our long-term investment in India’s economy,” Meta Founder and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg stated in a statement.
What Does the Data Center Investment Mean for Reliance?
Meta’s first AI data center deal with Reliance expands the relationship that the company has had with the Indian firm. Last year, Meta launched a $100 million joint venture with Reliance-owned Jio Platforms to build enterprise AI solutions for customers outside the U.S.
Under the partnership, Meta will lease computing capacity at the Jamnagar facility from Reliance. The Jamnagar Data Center will be powered by renewable energy and desalinated seawater will be used to cool it.
Meta, which started exploring an AI infrastructure partnership with Reliance last year, is expected to pay the entire energy and water costs incurred in operating the facility. The facility will be used to support Meta’s global AI computing and infrastructure needs. This places India directly into Meta’s network of AI data centers.
Reliance, on the other hand, is expected to provide end-to-end support, including the design and construction of renewable power, connectivity, and operations. The Indian conglomerate said the data center will be completed within two years.
Why is Meta Building a Data Center in India?
The AI data center project in Gujarat comes at a time when India is positioning itself as a destination for AI infrastructure investments. Increasingly, major technology firms are identifying new locations to establish data centers as demand for computing power soars.
Uber, Amazon, OpenAI, Microsoft, and Google have already announced plans to build cloud and AI infrastructure in the country. India, which signed a revolutionary trade agreement with the EU early this year, has been intentional about attracting foreign investments through policy incentives.
Some of the measures that the government has put in place include tax exemptions for cloud service providers that run through to 2047. New Delhi offers these exemptions as long as workloads run from data centers based in India.
What Other Deals has Meta Signed in India?
Meta said it has secured close to 1 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity through deals with CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy to power the Jamnagar facility. The company did not disclose the financial terms of its deals with the Indian firms or the facility’s AI workload.
The Meta-Reliance agreement is the latest step in a partnership that has grown steadily since Meta’s $5.7 billion investment in Jio Platforms in 2020. Collaboration between the two companies has expanded from digital services to enterprise AI and the infrastructure powering next-generation AI systems.
