Meta signs first AI data center deal in India with Reliance

As tech companies race to secure the computing power needed to train and deploy AI systems, Meta is making its first bet on AI infrastructure in India, forging a data center partnership with conglomerate Reliance Industries in a market that is rapidly emerging as a hub for AI infrastructure.

The partnership, announced On Wednesday, Meta will collaborate with Reliance on a 168-megawatt AI-enabled data center in Jamnagar, Gujarat, expanding a relationship that has evolved from Meta’s multibillion-dollar investment in Reliance’s Jio Platforms to a $100 million joint venture launched last year to develop enterprise AI solutions for customers in India and overseas markets.

The deal comes at a time when India is cementing its status as a natural destination for AI infrastructure investments, with tech giants looking for new geographies for data centers amid rising demand for computing power to train and deploy AI models. Companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, OpenAI and Uber have recently announced investments in AI and cloud infrastructure in the country, rapidly expanding its data center footprint in recent years.

The rush to India extends beyond global technology companies. Earlier this week, Blackstone-backed AirTrunk announced plans to invest $30 billion to build 5 gigawatts of data center capacity in the country by 2030, while Indian conglomerates including Adani and Tata Consultancy Services have also unveiled major data center expansion plans aimed at supporting AI workloads.

New Delhi has tried to attract such investments through policy incentives, including tax exemptions until 2047 for foreign cloud providers on services sold abroad, as long as those workloads are run from Indian data centers.

The installed data center capacity in India has increased approximately 375 megawatts in 2020 to approximately 1.5 gigawatts according to government data in 2025. According to industry estimates, this figure could rise more than fivefold to more than 8 gigawatts by the end of the decade, driven by cloud adoption, AI workloads and rising demand for local data processing.

The Meta-Reliance deal marks the latest chapter in a relationship that has steadily deepened since Meta invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms in 2020. Since then, the companies have expanded their collaboration across digital services, business AI and now the infrastructure underpinning next-generation AI systems.

As part of the partnership, Meta will lease capacity at Reliance’s new Jamnagar facility, which the companies say will be powered by renewable energy and cooled using desalinated seawater. Meta has committed to covering the full cost of the energy and water required to support its operations there.

Reliance said the 168 megawatt facility will be ready within two years and can be expanded over time. Further, the data center will also support Meta’s global infrastructure and AI computing requirements, connecting India more directly to the company’s global network of AI facilities.

Under the agreement, Reliance said it would provide end-to-end services ranging from design and construction to renewable energy, connectivity and ongoing operations, a sign of the conglomerate’s ambitions to become a one-stop shop for AI infrastructure among global technology companies.

In addition, Meta said it had contracted nearly 1 gigawatt of new renewable energy capacity in India through agreements with CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy, which will supplement renewable energy supporting the Jamnagar facility.

The companies did not disclose the value of the deal, the type of AI workloads that will run from the facility, or whether Meta plans additional investments in AI infrastructure in India.