India’s Reliance is building massive 3GW data center
Reliance Industries is working to build the world’s largest data center in India, which has a powerful AI network & supports India’s digital & AI development. Reliance Industries, India’s largest business group, is building what may turn out to be the world’s largest data center in terms of capacity, according to a Bloomberg report. 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 network. We plan to develop gigawatt-scale AI-ready data centers in Jamnagar, powered entirely by Reliance’s green energy, reflecting our commitment to usability & an environment future,” said Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, at the company’s 47th Annual General Meeting last year. This is part of the strategy to develop AI and achieve Jio’s “AI Everywhere for Everyone” vision, which Ambani said will give “powerful AI models & services to everyone in India at the most affordable prices.”
The Jamnagar data center is likely to be completed within two years. Director of Reliance Industries, Akash Ambani said that the Group is building an AI network 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 mainly 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 technology, the growing digital economy & data localization initiatives are the driving forces behind this development. 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.
Ambani’s Reliance Plan $30bn largest data center in the world
Mukesh Ambani-owned group wants to build the largest data center in the world, with plans to construct a high-capacity site in Jamnagar. Bloomberg reports that the proposed facility would grow a capacity of 3GW, with Reliance set to splash between $20 billion to $30 billion on building the data center. Limited details have been published on the Jamnagar project, though Reliance plans to power the site entirely with green energy through nearby solar, wind, and hydrogen projects currently under development.
India Energy Group Plans ‘World’s Largest’ Data Center
India’s government is pledging billions in financial support for the country’s ambitions around artificial intelligence (AI), and a Mumbai-headquartered energy group has said it plans to build what it calls the “world’s largest” data center in Jamnagar.
Reliance Industries, led by Mukesh Ambani, a billionaire and the company’s chairman, already partners with California-based technology group Nvidia. The companies last year said they would collaborate to develop AI supercomputers in India. They plan to jointly build AI infrastructure in the country, and Nvidia last year said it would provide its Blackwell AI processors for a reported 3-GW data center that would be built by Reliance.
The race to build data centers is being accompanied by an urgent need to supply electricity for the energy-intensive AI industry. Several forms of energy, both thermal and renewable, are being tapped to supply power. Nuclear power is among the options; TerraPower, a company founded by former Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, recently announced a deal for its Natrium nuclear technology to support the development of data centers. The most powerful generation in India comes from coal-fired power plants. In India Coal has said more than 70% of the country’s electricity comes from coal-burning facilities. Reliance Industries’ main plan to build a huge 3GW data center is poised to identically improve India’s digital network. This project not only addresses the growing demand for data storage & processing but also positions Reliance at the forefront of the country’s tech-driven future. With its scale & potential, the data center could play an important role in growing economic growth, innovation, & technological development in India.
