Meta to lease AI-enabled data centre in Gujarat's Jamnagar, cites India's attractiveness
Meta has partnered with Reliance Industries to lease its first AI-enabled data centre in India, a 168-megawatt facility in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Santosh Janardhan, Vice President (Infrastructure) at Meta, said the data centre will be part of the company's global network of interconnected computing systems.
“It will be part of a global fleet serving that global audience. We’re opening this data centre in India because we think India is an attractive investment destination,” Janardhan said during a media roundtable on Thursday.
The Jamnagar facility is designed as a highly flexible data centre capable of supporting a wide range of services and AI workloads globally, rather than being limited to a single product or region. Janardhan explained that every interaction across Meta's platforms—such as a Reel on Instagram or a WhatsApp message—is powered by multiple data centres working together in real time.
“When you post a reel or comment on Instagram, someone from Europe, India, or the US can interact with it in real time. It’s not a single server or single computer handling this. It’s a series of interconnected data centres working together globally to make that happen,” he said.
Janardhan emphasised that the investment reflects India's growing role in global digital infrastructure. “There’s a confluence of factors: consumer demand; our infrastructure needs; and the essential ingredients for a data centre—land, power, network, and cooling—all aligned well with what India offers and Meta needs.”
While Meta has not specified which AI functions will run from Jamnagar, Janardhan stressed that flexibility is key. “If we do our job right, we should have a highly flexible data centre that can serve a lot of traffic around the world. It won’t be restricted to just Instagram or WhatsApp; it will be capable of serving our entire ecosystem.”
The announcement comes as technology companies race to expand computing capacity for AI workloads. For India, it signals recognition as a key destination for global tech infrastructure investment.
