Meta's Green AI Push
Meta Leases Sustainable AI Data Center in India with Reliance
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Key Points
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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the Jamnagar facility will “help us scale our AI infrastructure globally while deepening our long-term investment in India’s economy,” describing the data centre as part of Meta’s push toward what it calls “personal superintelligence.”
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Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani called Meta’s investment a “transformative moment for India’s digital infrastructure,” underscoring Reliance’s view of the deal’s strategic significance.
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To power the buildout, Meta contracted nearly 1 GW of Indian clean energy: 837 MW via CleanMax (from solar and wind projects in Rajasthan and Karnataka) and 88 MW via Fourth Partner Energy (across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh).
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Broader policy context cited by CNBC: India announced a 20-year tax exemption for hyperscalers using data centres to service global clients, and Nomura said India’s data-centre capacity is expected to reach 7 GW by 2030—partly because it remains “cost-efficient.”
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The choice of Jamnagar is also linked to connectivity advantages: the site sits near undersea cable landings and Jio’s fibre network, which can reduce latency and improve global reach for AI traffic.
Meta has signed a deal to lease its first AI data center in India — a 168-megawatt facility in Jamnagar, Gujarat, built and operated by Reliance Industries Meta Newsroom. The site is expected to come online within two years and can expand in later phases. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the center will "help us scale our AI infrastructure globally while deepening our long-term investment in India's economy" Meta Newsroom.
Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani called the agreement a "transformative moment for India's digital infrastructure" Fortune India. Reliance's shares rose after the announcement as investors began viewing Jamnagar as a digital hub, not just an energy one INDmoney.
How the Deal Works and Who Bears the Risk
Under the agreement, Reliance designs, builds, connects, and runs the 168-MW facility. Meta pays the full cost of the energy and water its workloads use Economic Times. This structure keeps Meta's upfront capital exposure low. Reliance carries the engineering, delivery, and grid-reliability risk. Meta gets an option to expand capacity later without committing to a larger footprint now.
The deal builds on a relationship that started in April 2020, when Meta paid $5.7 billion for a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms webpronews.com. In early 2025, the two companies also teamed up to bring Meta's open-source Llama AI models to Indian developers GKToday. The Jamnagar lease is the infrastructure layer on top of that earlier work.
Meta Contracts Nearly 1 GW of Indian Renewable Power
To power the buildout, Meta signed two separate clean energy deals Business Standard. CleanMax will supply 837 MW from solar and wind projects in Rajasthan and Karnataka. Fourth Partner Energy will add 88 MW from sites across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh. Together that totals 925 MW — nearly one full gigawatt of new clean power in India.
The Jamnagar site will cool its servers using desalinated seawater rather than freshwater drawn from local supplies newskarnataka.com. Meta's head of clean energy, Amanda Yang, said the renewable procurement marks "meaningful progress" toward Meta's 100% clean energy goals in the region Press Trust of India. Critics have raised questions about brine discharge from large-scale desalination, which remains an open environmental concern.
Why Jamnagar: Cables, Fiber, and a Tax Holiday
Location matters as much as power for AI data centers. Jamnagar sits near undersea cable landings on India's western coast and inside Jio's fiber network Tech Times. Meta linked the site to its Project Waterworth subsea cable investment. That connectivity cuts latency for cross-border AI traffic — training data moving in, inference requests moving out.
Tax policy also played a role. India's Union Budget 2026–27 announced a 20-year tax holiday — running to 2047 — for foreign cloud providers using Indian data centers to serve global clients sg.finance.yahoo.com. Nomura projects India's data-center capacity will hit 7 GW by 2030, a 30% annual growth rate, partly because building here costs $6–7 million per MW versus $10–18 million in the US or Europe NDTV Profit.
India's AI Land Grab Draws Scrutiny at Home
The Jamnagar deal is part of a broader race. Reliance has pledged $110 billion over seven years for data centers and renewables finance.yahoo.com. Adani Enterprises has pledged $100 billion in infrastructure. Microsoft, Google, and Amazon are all competing for land and grid access in India Fortune India. Bernstein analysts said Reliance's advantage is "unmatched" because of its 0.5 million acres of Gujarat land and its grip on the renewable supply chain.
But not everyone sees the deal as a clean win. Some Indian tech journalists argue the 20-year tax holiday gives global giants like Meta an edge that local startups cannot match AIM Network. Domestic companies, which do not qualify for the same "global service" exemption, may struggle to compete for infrastructure and talent in the same markets. Zuckerberg framed the investment as part of Meta's push toward what he calls "personal superintelligence" — a goal that now, in part, runs through Gujarat.
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