Visakhapatnam emerges as India’s data centre hub in 2025
Major hyperscale investments, new subsea cable landings and policy support position the port city as a key digital gateway on the east coast
Visakhapatnam has emerged as one of India’s most significant data centre destinations in 2025, driven by large-scale global investments, expanding subsea cable connectivity and a focused push by the Andhra Pradesh government to build digital infrastructure along the east coast.
The turning point came with Google’s announcement of a $15-billion investment over five years in Andhra Pradesh to establish an AI and cloud infrastructure hub, anchored by a hyperscale data centre campus in Visakhapatnam with an initial capacity of about one gigawatt. The project is among the largest data centre investments announced in the country to date and has firmly placed the city on the global digital infrastructure map.
Announcing the investment earlier this year, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian said the initiative was aligned with the company’s long-term plan to support India’s growing demand for artificial intelligence and cloud services. He noted that strengthening local compute capacity was essential to accelerating India’s digital and AI ambitions.
Connectivity advantage
Industry experts point to Visakhapatnam’s strategic coastal location as a key factor behind its rapid rise. The city is emerging as an alternative subsea cable landing destination on the east coast, complementing existing hubs such as Mumbai and Chennai. Google has indicated that its investment includes a new international subsea cable gateway in Visakhapatnam, aimed at improving route diversity and network resilience for global data flows.
This connectivity push has been reinforced by private players. Sify Technologies has begun work on a 50-MW data centre along with an open cable landing station at the Rushikonda–Madhurawada IT Park. The facility is expected to support multiple submarine cables and provide neutral access to global carriers and cloud service providers.
At the project launch, IT and Electronics Minister Nara Lokesh said the initiative would strengthen India’s digital backbone and position Visakhapatnam as a global gateway for data traffic, particularly for enterprises serving Asia-Pacific markets.
Policy and infrastructure push
The State government’s Data Center Policy 4.0 (2024–2029) has played a critical role in attracting investments. The policy offers incentives for land, power, and approvals, while emphasising renewable energy use, water efficiency and high-availability power infrastructure. Officials say the policy aims to add several hundred megawatts of new data centre capacity during its tenure, with Visakhapatnam identified as a primary growth centre.
To support the hyperscale projects, large land parcels have been earmarked in and around Visakhapatnam and neighbouring Anakapalli district. Infrastructure agencies are also working on strengthening transmission networks to meet the high power and redundancy requirements of data centres.
Economic impact
According to industry estimates, the projects announced in 2025 could generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs across construction, electrical works, cooling systems, network operations and facility management, apart from boosting demand for local services and suppliers.
Sify Technologies chairman Raju Vegesna said the company viewed Visakhapatnam as a long-term bet for global connectivity and digital infrastructure, citing its potential to evolve into a major peering and cloud interconnection hub.
Challenges ahead
While the momentum is strong, experts caution that execution will be key. Ensuring reliable power supply at scale, managing water use for cooling, and completing projects within committed timelines will determine whether Visakhapatnam can sustain its early lead over competing cities.
Even so, by the end of 2025, Visakhapatnam has moved beyond intent and announcements. With hyperscale commitments, cable landings and supportive policy converging, the city has positioned itself as a serious contender for the title of India’s leading data centre hub on the east coast.