Reliance Industries plans a $17 billion data center hub in Visakhapatnam, set to become India’s largest facility with 1.5GW capacity, powered by renewable energy.
Reliance Industries is planning a major push into digital infrastructure with a large data center hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. The company is expected to invest about ₹1.6 lakh crore, or more than $17 billion to build the hub, which is expected to become India’s biggest data center project.
The planned facility will have a total capacity of 1.5 gigawatts. It will be developed in multiple phases over the next few years. In the first phase, Reliance aims to build a 500 megawatt data center at Polipalli village, with operations expected to begin by October 2028. Later phases will expand the capacity to 1 gigawatt and eventually reach the full 1.5 gigawatt scale by the end of the decade.
The Andhra Pradesh Investment Promotion Committee has already cleared the proposal, showing strong government backing for the project. Reliance data center hub is planned near the upcoming Bhogapuram airport, which adds to the region’s growing infrastructure strength. Reliance has requested around 935 acres of land for the development. The plan includes 300 acres for the first phase and 635 acres for the second phase. In addition, the project will also include land for a cable landing station and a desalination plant, which will help support operations.
A key part of the project is its focus on clean and reliable energy. The data center will be powered by a dedicated renewable energy system, including solar power and battery storage. This is important because data centers need constant electricity, especially for artificial intelligence and cloud computing workloads.
Visakhapatnam is quickly becoming a major hub for data center investments. Global and Indian companies are also planning large facilities in the region. Google, for example, is building a 1 gigawatt data center project with an investment of around $15 billion, along with partners like AdaniConneX and Airtel. Other firms such as Sify, Digital Connexion, Anant Raj Cloud, RMZ, and Tillman Global Holdings have also announced or planned major data center projects in the region.
According to Businesss Fortune, with these developments, Andhra Pradesh is moving closer to its goal of building a 6 gigawatt data center ecosystem, supported by strong policy incentives and rising demand for digital services in India.
