The establishment of a $15 billion Google AI hub in Andhra Pradesh has ignited political tensions, particularly between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh has responded to political criticism from Tamil Nadu over Google’s decision to set up a $15 billion Artificial Intelligence hub in Visakhapatnam. The investment, announced as part of a five-year plan, sparked a political row after opposition parties in Tamil Nadu accused the ruling DMK government of failing to attract Google to the state, despite the tech giant’s CEO, Sundar Pichai, hailing from Madurai.
Taking to X, Lokesh wrote, “He chose Bharat,” dismissing regional politics and emphasising that India as a whole stood to gain from the tech major’s investment.
The AIADMK had targeted Chief Minister MK Stalin’s administration, with senior leader RB Udayakumar telling reporters, “Despite Google CEO Sundar Pichai being a Tamil, the DMK government failed to invite the company to establish its AI infrastructure hub here. This is not just a missed investment. It’s a lost chance for Tamil Nadu to emerge as a national hub for AI, data analytics, and digital infrastructure.”
India’s Biggest $15 Billion AI hub In Andhra
Google will invest USD 15 billion over the next five years in setting up an AI hub in India, which will include the country’s largest data centre in partnership with Adani Group. The AI hub at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh will be Google’s largest outside the US and will include 1-gigawatt data centre campus, new large-scale energy sources, and an expanded fiber-optic network, the tech super giant said.
“It’s the largest AI hub that we are going to be investing in anywhere in the world outside of the US,” Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said at an event here to sign the formal agreement.