THE APEX TIMES
Meta to lease its first AI-enabled data center in India from Reliance, targeting 168 MW in Jamnagar
Facebook-parent Meta said it has agreed to lease capacity for an AI-enabled data center being built by Reliance Industries in Jamnagar, Gujarat, marking its first such facility in India. The project is slated for completion within about two years, with room to expand as Meta’s demand for AI computing grows.
Meta said it has entered an agreement with Reliance Industries to lease what it described as its first AI-enabled data center in India. The facility will be built in Jamnagar, Gujarat, and Reliance will develop a data center with 168 megawatts (MW) of capacity, a scale Meta said is designed to support infrastructure for its technologies and AI ambitions.
According to Meta’s announcement, the data center will be powered by renewable energy and cooled using desalinated seawater. Meta said it will cover the full cost of the energy and water supporting the facility, linking the lease to operating inputs that are typically major cost drivers for large-scale computing.
Meta said Reliance will build the Jamnagar facility and that Meta expects it to be delivered within two years, with options to scale the arrangement over time. In the company’s framing, the deal is intended to give Meta additional computing footprint to support AI workloads and services for users, while deepening a longer-running relationship with Reliance across areas such as connectivity and commerce.
In a quote included in the announcement, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and chief executive, said the Jamnagar facility will help Meta scale its AI infrastructure globally while deepening Meta’s long-term investment in India. Meta also said the agreement is part of an expanded push to increase capacity footprint to serve its “technologies, services, and AI ambitions,” which it says are used by billions of people worldwide.
For Reliance, the agreement reinforces its role as a major infrastructure provider in India’s fast-growing data center and digital-services ecosystem. Jamnagar is positioned by Meta as a strategic location, and Meta said Reliance is developing one of the largest data center campuses in the area, though it did not specify the total campus size or the portion Meta will lease beyond the initial 168 MW.
Industry observers have previously noted that the data center buildout across India increasingly hinges on power availability, water sourcing, and power-efficiency at scale, all of which can determine how quickly AI compute capacity can be deployed. Meta’s emphasis on renewable energy and desalinated seawater suggests it is trying to address those operational constraints in parallel with capacity expansion.
Meta did not disclose key deal terms beyond the initial capacity, including the lease duration, the pricing structure, or the specific mechanism for scaling beyond “options to scale.” The company also did not detail how much of Meta’s planned AI workloads will run on this specific facility versus other data centers globally, or the timeline for migrating or ramping capacity once the Jamnagar site is delivered.
What to watch next is how Meta and Reliance describe the scaling plan after the initial buildout, and whether the companies provide more specifics on delivery schedules, environmental and permitting milestones, and the expected capacity additions if demand accelerates. For investors, the deal is a announcement that Meta is treating India infrastructure as part of its broader AI supply chain, even though financial terms remain undisclosed in the public announcement.
Why It Matters
- The lease highlights how AI infrastructure demand is driving new data center deals tied to both power and cooling inputs, not just capacity.
- Expanding in India can help Meta reduce reliance on overseas capacity growth and better match demand from a large and fast-growing local user base.
- The use of renewable energy and desalinated water in Meta’s description suggests an attempt to manage the operational constraints that often slow data center scaling.
- Because Meta did not disclose pricing or lease duration, the deal’s financial impact and flexibility remain unclear.
Sources
Key Facts
- Meta said it has agreed to lease its first AI-enabled data center capacity in India from Reliance Industries.
- The Jamnagar, Gujarat facility is planned at 168 MW of capacity.
- Meta expects the data center to be delivered within about two years and said the arrangement includes options to scale.
- Meta said the facility will use renewable energy and will be cooled with desalinated seawater, with Meta covering energy and water costs.
- Mark Zuckerberg characterized the facility as a way for Meta to scale AI infrastructure globally while deepening long-term investment in India.
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