Google’s Gigawatt-Scale AI Hub in Andhra Pradesh to Advance India AI Mission: Ashwini Vaishnaw
New Delhi, October 14
Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw today said the new gigawatt-scale AI hub announced by Google in Andhra Pradesh will go a long way in meeting the goals of the India AI mission. Speaking at the Bharat AI Shakti event in New Delhi, Mr Vaishnaw said, the AI hub will contribute to the India AI mission in many ways. He said, AI is fundamentally changing the way the world functions today.
He urged Google for re-skilling and up-skilling IT professionals at a large scale. The Minister also underlined that AI services are emerging as a major category in the digital economy and Google AI Hub in Visakhapatnam marks a transformative step for India’s digital economy. Mr Vaishnaw also said that the facility must be used in developing the talent, youth and employment potential of the country in AI services.
Union Minister Mr Vaishnaw also proposed establishing a Vizag- Sittwe link to strengthen digital connectivity in the North-Eastern states. He noted that extending the cable via Myanmar to Mizoram would be a major step forward, as the railway line up to Sairang is already complete and work is underway to extend it to the Myanmar border.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also hailed the launch of the AI hub during the event. The Finance Minister asserted, the launch of this project reflects the harmony between progressive policy-making and the dynamism in governance decision-making.
Our correspondent reports that the establishment of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, by Google will enable the company to deploy its full AI stack with the aim of accelerating AI-driven transformation across India.
The new AI Hub will bring together advanced AI infrastructure, data center capacity, large-scale renewable energy sources, and an expanded fiber-optic network, all at one place. This investment, of around 15 billion dollars over five years, marks Google’s largest investment in India so far. It aligns with Government’s Viksit Bharat Vision, which seeks to accelerate the expansion of AI-driven services.
The Google AI Hub in Visakhapatnam will include a purpose-built data center campus, adding gigawatt-scale compute capacity to help meet demand for digital services across India and around the world. The AI Hub will also deliver the high-performance and low-latency services that businesses and organizations need to build and scale their own AI-powered solutions.
It will ultimately help India secure its place as a global leader in the AI-driven future. When operational, the new data center campus will join Google’s network of existing AI data centers that spans 12 countries.