Meta Partners With Reliance To Build First AI Data Centre In India At Jamnagar; Leases 168 MW

Meta Platforms has tied up with Reliance Industries to set up its first large-scale artificial intelligence (AI)-ready data centre in India, leasing 168 megawatts (MWs) of capacity at Reliance's hyperscale campus in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with an option to scale further.

Mark Zuckerberg said the Jamnagar facility will help Meta grow its AI infrastructure globally while deepening its investment in India. Mukesh Ambani called the partnership a transformative moment for India's digital infrastructure, adding that the deal demonstrates India's readiness to lead the global AI revolution.

What The Facility Will Look Like

The data centre will run on renewable energy and use desalinated seawater for cooling, with Meta covering the cost of the cooling system. Jamnagar will also be connected to Meta's Project Waterworth, the company's ambitious subsea cable network described as the world's longest subsea system. The connection will integrate the India facility directly into Meta's global infrastructure.

Clean Energy Commitments

Alongside the Jamnagar deal, Meta has separately partnered with two Indian clean energy companies to back nearly 1 gigawatt of renewable power. CleanMax will develop 837 MW of new solar and wind projects in Rajasthan and Karnataka, taking its cumulative capacity for Meta beyond 900 MW. Fourth Partner Energy will build 88 MW of new solar and wind projects across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh.

A Deepening Partnership

Meta and Reliance have a history going back to 2020, when Meta invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms for a 9.98% stake.

The two companies have since worked together on several fronts, including their AI joint venture Reliance Enterprise Intelligence Limited, in which both have committed an investment of ₹855 crore.

Reliance has pledged to invest $110 billion over the next seven years in AI-related infrastructure. Ambani has stated that India cannot afford to rent intelligence and that Reliance aims to bring down the cost of AI as dramatically as it once reduced the cost of mobile data.

Also Read - TCS Chairman Says AI Agents Will Match Human Headcount By Next Three Years

India's Data Centre Boom

The Meta deal is part of a much larger wave of investment sweeping India's data centre industry.

Global hyperscalers including Microsoft, Amazon and Google, alongside Indian conglomerates such as Reliance, Adani, Tata and L&T, are collectively expected to invest more than $270 billion over the next five to seven years, taking total domestic data centre capacity from 1.4 gigawatts today to around 10 gigawatts. Adani Enterprises has separately announced plans to invest $100 billion in AI infrastructure by 2035.

Government policies including a 20-year tax holiday for cloud companies and safe harbour provisions have also helped attract long-term commitments from global technology players.

Sources:

The Economic Times

Money Control