Gandhinagar: Meta has signed its first artificial intelligence data centre partnership in India, joining hands with Reliance Industries to build AI infrastructure in Gujarat as global technology companies expand their computing capacity in the country.
The agreement will see Meta lease capacity at a 168-megawatt AI-enabled data centre being developed by Reliance in Jamnagar. The project marks a new phase in the relationship between the two companies, which began with Meta's $5.7 billion investment in Jio Platforms in 2020 and later expanded into enterprise AI solutions.
The Jamnagar facility is expected to be operational within the next two years and will support Meta's global AI and computing requirements. Reliance said the project has been designed with future expansion in mind as demand for AI infrastructure continues to rise.
Under the arrangement, Reliance will provide end-to-end services, including the design, construction, power supply, connectivity and operation of the facility. The company is positioning itself as a full-service provider for technology firms looking to establish AI infrastructure in India.
The data centre will run on renewable energy and use desalinated seawater for cooling. Meta has agreed to bear the cost of the energy and water required for its operations at the facility.
The announcement comes at a time when India is attracting growing interest from global technology companies seeking locations for large-scale AI and cloud infrastructure. Demand for computing power has surged as companies race to train and deploy increasingly sophisticated AI models.
Over the past year, firms such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, OpenAI and Uber have announced investments related to AI and cloud infrastructure in India. The country has emerged as a key destination due to its expanding digital economy, improving infrastructure and supportive policy environment.
The momentum is also being driven by large investments from infrastructure and technology players. Earlier this week, AirTrunk, backed by Blackstone, unveiled plans to invest $30 billion in developing 5 gigawatts of data centre capacity in India by 2030. Indian conglomerates including Adani Group and Tata Consultancy Services have also announced plans to expand their data centre operations.
The central government has introduced incentives to attract such investments, including tax benefits for foreign cloud providers operating export-oriented services from Indian data centres.
According to government data, India's installed data centre capacity has increased from around 375 megawatts in 2020 to nearly 1.5 gigawatts in 2025. Industry projections estimate that the country's capacity could exceed 8 gigawatts by the end of the decade, supported by growing cloud adoption, AI workloads and increasing demand for local data storage and processing.
In a separate announcement, Meta said it had secured nearly 1 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity in India through agreements with CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy. The additional renewable power will complement the energy requirements of its operations, including the upcoming Jamnagar facility.
The companies did not disclose the financial terms of the partnership or provide details on the specific AI workloads that will be handled from the new data centre.
BI Bureau
