Meta secures first AI data centre deal in India with Reliance
The social media giant will lease capacity at the renewable-powered site, which is expected to be operational within two years, as India cements its status as a global hub for AI infrastructure.
Meta has entered into a partnership with Reliance Industries to establish a 168-megawatt AI-enabled data centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat. This agreement marks the company’s first AI infrastructure investment in India and expands a commercial relationship that began with a $5.7 billion investment in Reliance’s Jio Platforms in 2020. The facility, which will be powered by renewable energy and cooled using desalinated seawater, is expected to be ready within two years and will support Meta’s global AI computing needs.
Under the terms of the deal, Meta will lease capacity at the Reliance facility rather than owning it outright. Reliance will provide end-to-end services, including design, construction, renewable power, connectivity, and ongoing operations. Meta has committed to covering the entire cost of the energy and water required to support its operations at the site. The partnership also builds on a $100 million joint venture launched last year to develop enterprise AI solutions for customers in India and overseas markets.
The announcement comes as India cements its status as a natural destination for AI infrastructure investments. Government data indicates that the country’s installed data centre capacity has risen from approximately 375 megawatts in 2020 to around 1.5 gigawatts in 2025. Industry estimates project that this figure could grow to over 8 gigawatts by the end of the decade, driven by cloud adoption and rising demand for local data processing.
New Delhi has sought to attract such investments through policy incentives, including tax exemptions through 2047 for foreign cloud providers selling services overseas, provided the workloads are run from Indian data centres. The rush into the market extends beyond global technology firms, with competitors such as Microsoft, Amazon, Google, OpenAI, and Uber recently announcing major infrastructure investments. Blackstone-backed AirTrunk also announced plans to invest $30 billion to build 5 gigawatts of data centre capacity in India by 2030.
Separately, Meta has contracted nearly 1 gigawatt of new renewable energy capacity in India through agreements with CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy to supplement the power supporting the Jamnagar facility. While the companies did not disclose the value of the agreement or the specific type of AI workloads that will run from the facility, the deal plugs India more directly into Meta’s worldwide network of AI facilities.
