Meta has struck a major deal with Reliance Industries to lease a 168-megawatt AI data center in Jamnagar, India — a move that deepens the companies’ long-running tech partnership and bolsters India’s role as a growing hub for AI infrastructure.
The facility, to be built by Reliance and delivered within two years, will be AI-enabled and come with an option to scale beyond its initial 168 MW capacity. Reliance — the conglomerate behind businesses from petrochemicals to telecom and digital services — will construct and then lease the site to Meta, extending a relationship that began with Meta’s $5.7 billion investment in Reliance’s Jio Platforms in 2020 and continued via a joint venture last year that made Meta’s open-source AI models available to Indian enterprises and developers.
“This world-class facility in Jamnagar will help us scale our AI infrastructure globally,” Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, adding that the project deepens Meta’s long-term investment in India. Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani called the investment a “transformative moment for India’s digital infrastructure.”
Why it matters
- Hyperscalers are rapidly expanding AI infrastructure in India to meet surging demand for large-scale compute. Industry figures cited in the announcement put fresh investment into India’s AI ecosystem at roughly $400 billion over the past year, with much of that flowing into data centers and energy systems.
- A June 2 Nomura report referenced by the release ranks India’s data-center industry among the fastest-growing worldwide and highlights India’s cost advantages versus developed Asia-Pacific and Western markets. Nomura projects India’s data center capacity could rise to about 7 gigawatts by 2030.
- Policy tailwinds are also in play: the Indian government introduced a 20-year tax exemption earlier this year for hyperscalers using Indian data centers to serve clients overseas, further incentivizing onshore AI buildout.
Clean power and scale
Meta said it is pairing physical infrastructure growth with renewable energy investments in India: partnerships with CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy will cover nearly 1 gigawatt of renewable capacity across northern and southern states to help power its expanding footprint. Those projects align with Meta’s global target to match operations with 100% clean and renewable energy.
What this could mean for crypto and Web3 players
For crypto-native firms and Web3 projects, expanding high-capacity AI sites in India could translate into more accessible large-scale compute and lower-cost infrastructure options for AI-driven dApps, data services, and hybrid on-chain/off-chain systems. Combined with renewable power and tax incentives, the deal further signals India’s attractiveness as a base for advanced cloud, AI, and blockchain workloads.
The Jamnagar agreement ties together AI compute, renewables, and Reliance’s industrial scale, and positions India as a growing locus for hyperscaler activity — with Meta counting on the new facility to scale its AI operations globally while continuing to deepen its India investment.
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