The Tamesis
India’s Adani Group said on Tuesday it plans to invest $100 billion over the next decade to build “artificial intelligence-ready data centers” powered by renewable energy.
The news comes as the country hosts a five-day Global Artificial Intelligence Summit In New Delhi, the Modi government’s efforts to become a global hub for artificial intelligence will be boosted.
India is expected to see a significant increase in spending on artificial intelligence infrastructure, with tech giants such as Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta and OpenAI, as well as local companies such as Reliance and Tata, considering setting up major data centers.
Also read: Tech leaders fly to India for AI summit amid slew of concerns
The AI summit will attract 20 national leaders and 45 ministerial delegations (Thursday is the key day), who will rub shoulders with tech CEOs such as OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Google’s Sundar Pichai.
The $100 billion investment will facilitate an additional $150 billion in spending in “server manufacturing, advanced power infrastructure, sovereign cloud platforms and support industries,” Adani Group said in a statement.
“This is expected to create a $250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem in India within ten years,” the report states.
Cooperation with Google and Microsoft
The massive ports power group said the “foundation” of its vision was to work with Google – aims to build a massive data center campus in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam – and Microsoft.
“The Adani Group is also in discussions with other key players to seek to establish large-scale campuses across India, further cementing its position as India’s premier AI infrastructure partner,” the statement added.
Last year, India jumped to third place, overtaking South Korea and Japan, in an annual global artificial intelligence competitiveness ranking calculated by researchers at Stanford University.
But experts say China still has a long way to go before it can compete with the United States and China, despite its massive infrastructure plans and innovation ambitions.
Tax breaks, water shortage concerns
India has pledged not to tax foreign companies that use data centers established in the country to serve global customers until 2047 on these outbound services.
But the finance minister said earlier this month that the companies would need to provide services to domestic customers through Indian resale entities. This means New Delhi will still earn tax revenue from them.
Delhi also faces real challenges in realizing its data center dreams as they require Lots of electricity and water India is already struggling to adequately provide both resources.
Millions of people in India’s capital in January lose water source Six of the city’s nine main water plants were shut for more than a week due to severe pollution in the Yamuna river, the city’s main water source.
Water shortage is a big problem. In 2018, government agencies It can even be said The country is dealing with the “worst water crisis in history.” The years of uncertain weather, heat waves and droughts that followed didn’t help either.
Most data centers in India are also located in densely populated urban centers such as Mumbai and Hyderabad, where water demand continues to soar.
Concerns have been raised over Google’s proposed data centers in Visakhapatnam and other cities. Days after announcing the investment, advocacy group Human Rights Forum said Google’s data centers represented a “looming environmental and economic disaster.”
- AFP Additional input and editing by Jim Pollard
See also:
India’s 20-year data center tax break faces resource crunch
Nvidia joins India in spending $12 billion to back AI, robotics and chip companies
Amazon, Microsoft will invest more than $50 billion in artificial intelligence in India
AI data centers raise concerns about memory storage devices
India launches plan to let users shop online through ChatGPT
India uses artificial intelligence to predict the economic impact of extreme weather
Data centers, AI, cryptocurrencies boost Asia’s power demand – IEA
India to inject $1.2 billion into AI projects and startups
Asian data center companies secure billions in investment from global investors
Morgan Stanley: Data center boom will drive clean energy development
Artificial intelligence data centers use far more water than expected
Actual emissions from big tech company data centers are 660% higher
India’s green transition in trouble
