Business
Reliance Industries to set up India’s largest data centre cluster in Andhra Pradesh
It is expected to be India’s largest data centre cluster, eclipsing Google’s 1-GW project being set up in the same region with an investment of $15 billion.
Andhra Pradesh’s Investment Promotion Committee approved the investment at a meeting last Saturday, according to the people who did not wish to be identified.
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RIL plans to set up a “giga-scale AI (artificial intelligence) data centre cluster” in three phases, they said, adding that the company has sought 935 acres for the cluster (300 acres for the first phase and 635 for the second), 1 acre for a cable landing station and 80 acres for a desalination plant.
ET’s emailed queries to RIL did not elicit a response till press time. In the first phase, the company will set up a 500 MW data centre at Polipalli village, expected to start commercial production by October 2028, according to people privy to the proposal. In the second phase, a total 1 GW capacity will come up.
Incentivising Data Centre Boom
This will be at Bhogapuram East and West by 2030. The entire cluster will be established near Visakhapatnam’s new airport at Bhogapuram.Visakhapatnam is witnessing a data centre boom. Google announced the first major investment of $15 billion in the region in a 1 GW cluster, which will be formally launched on Tuesday.
Besides, Sify will set up a 500 MW data centre. Others in the pipeline include those of Digital Connexion (1 GW) and Anant Raj Cloud (about 300 MW). Two more MoUs have been signed for setting up data centres in the port city, with RMZ (1 GW) and Tillman Global Holdings (300 MW).
In September 2025, Andhra Pradesh IT minister Nara Lokesh said the state is targeting a hosting capacity of 6 GW. RIL’s proposed project takes the state closer to its goal, with MoUs signed for data centres with capacity totalling 5.6 GW.
The state offers a slew of incentives under its Data Centre Policy 4.0, including 100% state GST reimbursement on capital goods, 10% capital subsidy on machinery and deemed distribution licences for direct energy procurement for data centre projects with capacity of at least 300 MW.
RIL proposes to invest about ₹1.08 lakh crore in the cluster and ₹51,300 crore in the associated renewable energy project.
The State Investment Promotion Committee has cleared a solar project with total direct current panel capacity of 9,000 MW-peak that will generate a maximum 6,600 MW of alternating current.