Meta, the parent of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is likely to partner with Sify Technologies for setting up a 500-megawatt data centre in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, said a person familiar with the matter.
Sify is expected to invest Rs 15,266 crore to build the hyperscale data centre in Paradesipalem village, about 25 kms from Visakhapatnam city on the Kolkata-Srikakulam highway. This capacity will be leased to Meta.
Meta will also land its ambitious subsea cable project ‘Waterworth’ at Sify’s landing station in the area.
“Sify will develop the data centre and all infrastructure till the racks,” the person said.
A data centre houses rows of racks on which graphics processing units (GPUs) and tensor processing units (TPUs) are installed. These processors can be hired or bought from a developer such as Nvidia.
“Meta will be the end user. Other details about investment in racks and processing units are being worked out,” the person said.
Meta and Sify did not reply to ET’s email queries.
This marks the first time the Menlo Park-based social media giant will lease large-scale data infrastructure in India, aiming to tap the world’s largest base for AI services and its ‘Superintelligence’ play.
In addition to leasing data-centre capacity, Meta will also land its multibillion-dollar undersea cable system, Waterworth, on the shores of Mumbai and Visakhapatnam, ET had reported previously.
Spanning more than 50,000 kilometres, Waterworth is poised to become the world’s longest subsea cable system, linking the US, India, Brazil, and South Africa, and expected to boost international bandwidth, and lower latency.
For Sify, which is planning to list on the local bourses in 2026, the partnership with Meta would be one of its single-largest customer commitments.
Sify and Google are the first companies to jump onto Andhra Pradesh’s mega plan to develop a data centre ecosystem with a 6GW capacity.
While Google will develop a data centre cluster with an installed capacity of 1 GW, the state government has sanctioned 550 MW for Sify. The company’s first AI data centre with 50 MW capacity will come up at Madhurawada.
In the recently-concluded CII Partnership Summit, the Andhra Pradesh government signed an MoU with Reliance Industries to establish a 1 GW data centre. Similar pacts have also been signed with Tillman Global Holdings (300 MW) and Anant Raj Cloud (117 MW), boosting the overall deals to 3 GW.
While there have been discussions with Brookfield for installing a data centre cluster with 3 GW capacity, an MoU has yet to be signed. The state is emerging as a data centre hub as it is keenly tapping into the potential of its long coastline.
A senior Andhra Pradesh government official told ET, “Companies are looking at the east coast for undersea cable projects as it helps in tapping the southeast Asian market.”
Sify is expected to invest Rs 15,266 crore to build the hyperscale data centre in Paradesipalem village, about 25 kms from Visakhapatnam city on the Kolkata-Srikakulam highway. This capacity will be leased to Meta.
Meta will also land its ambitious subsea cable project ‘Waterworth’ at Sify’s landing station in the area.
“Sify will develop the data centre and all infrastructure till the racks,” the person said.
A data centre houses rows of racks on which graphics processing units (GPUs) and tensor processing units (TPUs) are installed. These processors can be hired or bought from a developer such as Nvidia.
“Meta will be the end user. Other details about investment in racks and processing units are being worked out,” the person said.
Meta and Sify did not reply to ET’s email queries.
This marks the first time the Menlo Park-based social media giant will lease large-scale data infrastructure in India, aiming to tap the world’s largest base for AI services and its ‘Superintelligence’ play.
In addition to leasing data-centre capacity, Meta will also land its multibillion-dollar undersea cable system, Waterworth, on the shores of Mumbai and Visakhapatnam, ET had reported previously.
Spanning more than 50,000 kilometres, Waterworth is poised to become the world’s longest subsea cable system, linking the US, India, Brazil, and South Africa, and expected to boost international bandwidth, and lower latency.
For Sify, which is planning to list on the local bourses in 2026, the partnership with Meta would be one of its single-largest customer commitments.
Sify and Google are the first companies to jump onto Andhra Pradesh’s mega plan to develop a data centre ecosystem with a 6GW capacity.
While Google will develop a data centre cluster with an installed capacity of 1 GW, the state government has sanctioned 550 MW for Sify. The company’s first AI data centre with 50 MW capacity will come up at Madhurawada.
In the recently-concluded CII Partnership Summit, the Andhra Pradesh government signed an MoU with Reliance Industries to establish a 1 GW data centre. Similar pacts have also been signed with Tillman Global Holdings (300 MW) and Anant Raj Cloud (117 MW), boosting the overall deals to 3 GW.
While there have been discussions with Brookfield for installing a data centre cluster with 3 GW capacity, an MoU has yet to be signed. The state is emerging as a data centre hub as it is keenly tapping into the potential of its long coastline.
A senior Andhra Pradesh government official told ET, “Companies are looking at the east coast for undersea cable projects as it helps in tapping the southeast Asian market.”