Ashwini Vaishnaw arrives in Visakhapatnam for Google data centre foundation ceremony

Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday arrived in Visakhapatnam to participate in the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Google AI Data Centre at Tarluvada in Anandapuram mandal. Minister Nara Lokesh and other Telugu Desam Party public representatives welcomed Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw at Visakhapatnam Airport.

State Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu will also participate in the laying ceremony. In the evening, Minister Nara Lokesh will participate in the Bharat AI Shakti Conclave at Novotel Visakhapatnam Varun Beach.

According to the press release by the Andhra Pradesh Information & Public Relations (AP I&PR) Department, Google is going to invest USD 15 billion in the project, making it one of the largest Foreign Direct Investments in India's history. The AI Data Centre will have a capacity of 1 Gigawatt. The project has become possible due to the coalition government's proactive speed of doing business policy aimed at attracting large-scale investments.

With the upcoming subsea cable connectivity system, Visakhapatnam will soon have direct digital links with several countries. The data centre will provide large-scale data storage capacity along with advanced AI cloud infrastructure. Visakhapatnam's coastal location makes it highly suitable for an international submarine cable landing station. The data centre will be developed across nearly 600 acres in Tharluwada, Adavivaram, and Rambilli regions with a total capacity of 1 Gigawatt.

Companies such as AdaniConneX and Airtel Nxtra are partners in the project. The government's long-term vision is to build a multi-gigawatt digital hub with a total capacity of 6.5 Gigawatts across the state. Beyond infrastructure, the Google Data Centre is expected to generate significant employment opportunities. Thousands of jobs are likely to be created in areas such as Artificial Intelligence, cloud operations, maintenance, cybersecurity, cloud architecture and data science. Revenue generated through data centres will further strengthen the state economy.

The project is also expected to attract investments in allied sectors, including power systems, cooling technologies, server manufacturing, and networking, helping create a robust AI ecosystem in Andhra Pradesh. Google AI cloud services are expected to position Visakhapatnam as a major technology hub in Asia. AI-driven companies are also likely to choose the city as their destination. IT startups, research centres, cloud firms, and semiconductor companies are expected to establish operations in the region. (ANI)

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