Meta has made one of its biggest infrastructure bets in India by partnering with Reliance Industries to develop its first AI-enabled data centre in the country. Under the agreement, Reliance will build a 168 megawatt AI-ready data centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat, which Meta will lease to support its global AI and digital infrastructure requirements. The facility is expected to be completed within two years and has been designed with expansion options, allowing capacity to be increased as demand for AI computing grows.
The scale of the project is significant by both Indian and global standards. A 168 MW facility is far larger than a typical enterprise data centre and places the project firmly in the hyperscale category. Estimates suggest that infrastructure of this size can support tens of thousands of AI accelerators and advanced servers required for training and running large AI models. Even the power requirement is roughly equivalent to the electricity consumption of around 150,000 homes, clearly showing the massive computing capacity being planned at the site. The project will become Meta’s first built-to-suit data centre capacity in India and one of the largest AI-focused infrastructure investments announced in the country.
Jamnagar was selected because of its unique infrastructure advantages. Notably, Reliance is already developing one of the world’s largest integrated data centre and energy ecosystems there, along with its massive refining, petrochemicals and renewable energy operations. The location offers access to large land parcels, power generation assets, water resources, submarine cable connectivity on India’s western coast and Jio’s extensive fibre network. These factors are increasingly important as AI data centres require not only computing hardware but also reliable electricity, high-speed connectivity and advanced cooling systems operating at industrial scale.
A major aspect of the project is its sustainability strategy. The facility will run on renewable energy and use desalinated seawater for cooling, reducing dependence on conventional freshwater resources. Meta has also committed to covering the full energy and water costs associated with its operations at the site. Simultaneously, the company announced that it is expanding renewable energy partnerships in India, including arrangements with CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy, taking its renewable energy commitments in the country to nearly 1 gigawatt.
It is important to note that the association between Reliance and Meta is not new. The two companies have been strategic partners since 2020, when Meta invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms, acquiring a nearly 10% stake in Reliance’s digital business. Since then, they have collaborated across multiple initiatives, including WhatsApp-based commerce, digital payments, business messaging and AI-driven enterprise solutions.
The deal also comes at a time when India is witnessing a massive surge in AI infrastructure investments. Earlier, Reliance had announced plans involving around $110 billion of investments linked to AI and digital infrastructure, while the Adani Group has outlined around $100 billion of planned spending in the sector. Global cloud providers including Amazon, Microsoft and Google are simultaneously expanding their Indian data-centre footprints as demand for AI computing accelerates. According to reports, India’s data-centre capacity could grow more than fivefold to over 8 gigawatts by the end of the decade.
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Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutosh’s career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
