India's largest business conglomerate, Reliance Industries, is building what may turn out to be the world's largest data center in terms of capacity, according to a Bloomberg report (paywall applies).
The upcoming data center, in Jamnagar in the state of Gujarat in Western India, will have a capacity of 3GW, significantly more than any other data center worldwide. Reliance Industries operates one of the world's largest petroleum refineries in Jamnagar. Jamnagar is also where it all started for Reliance Industries, so it is not surprising that it has decided to locate the AI data center there.
"We are laying the groundwork for a truly national AI infrastructure. We plan to establish gigawatt-scale AI-ready data centers in Jamnagar, powered entirely by Reliance's green energy, reflecting our commitment to sustainability and a greener future," said Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, at the company's 47th Annual General Meeting (AGM) last year.
This is part of the strategy to democratize AI and achieve Jio's "AI Everywhere for Everyone" vision, which Ambani saidd will offer "powerful AI models and services to everyone in India at the most affordable prices."
The Jamnagar data center is likely to be completed within two years. Akash Ambani, director of Reliance Industries, said recently that the Group is building AI infrastructure that "will not only make Jamnagar a leader in AI infrastructure but will also place it amongst the top rank in the world."
The planned data center will significantly boost India's data center capability. The country's operational data center capacity reached around 950MW in FY2024 and is likely to more than double and touch 2GW to 2.1GW by FY2027, according to ICRA. Apart from AI, the booming digital economy and data localization initiatives are the driving forces behind this growth.
According to the Bloomberg report, the project's cost could range between $20 billion and $30 billion. The data center in Jamnagar will use Nvidia's AI semiconductors. Reliance Industries partnered with AI giant Nvidia in 2023 to develop India's large language model trained on the country's various languages.
Several technology companies, including Microsoft, Google and Amazon, are building data centers as AI demand grows exponentially. Earlier this month, SoftBank Group, Oracle and OpenAI came together, pledging to invest $500 billion over the next four years in the Stargate Project, formed to build AI infrastructure in the US.