Meta Turns to Reliance as AI Data Center Race Reaches India

Meta has signed an settlement with Reliance Industries to lease its first AI-enabled information middle in India. Reliance will construct the 168 MW facility in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with choices to scale capability.

The deal extends a partnership that started with Meta’s $5.7 billion funding in Jio Platforms in 2020. It additionally arrives as information facilities face rising public scrutiny over electrical energy and water consumption.

Meta Signs First Indian AI Data Center Lease With Reliance Industries

According to the announcement, renewable power will energy the Jamnagar facility, whereas desalinated seawater will cool it. Meta will cowl the complete value of the power and water supporting the location. 

Meta pointed to Jamnagar’s strategic worth, the place Reliance is setting up a large information middle campus backed by the power capability that superior AI techniques demand.

“We’re proud to be working with Reliance to construct our first AI-enabled information middle in India. This world-class facility in Jamnagar will assist us scale our AI infrastructure globally whereas deepening our long-term funding in India’s financial system,”  Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and CEO of Meta, said.

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We’re saying Meta’s first AI-enabled information middle in India. This marks each a big milestone in our world infrastructure growth and India’s rising function within the world AI ecosystem.https://t.co/3cSiScsq9C

— Meta Newsroom (@MetaNewsroom) June 10, 2026

In addition, Meta additionally contracted almost 1 GW of new clean energy in India. CleanMax will provide 837 MW of photo voltaic and wind tasks in Rajasthan and Karnataka. Fourth Partner Energy will add 88 MW throughout Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh.

“Meta is investing aggressively to increase our capability footprint to help our applied sciences, companies, and AI ambitions, which serve billions of individuals worldwide. India’s quickly rising tech-forward digital financial system, its huge person base, and the power of our partnership with Reliance make India a really perfect place to make investments,” the weblog added.

Research Finds No Link Between Data Centers and Electricity Prices

The AI buildout has stoked fears, voiced by figures like Senator Elizabeth Warren, that households will soak up the price of surging energy demand.

A single AI information middle makes use of as a lot electrical energy as 100,000 households—and utility corporations are passing the improve prices to you, not to the trillion-dollar tech giants.

I’ve opened an investigation. These corporations want to pay their prices.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) May 12, 2026

Entergy CEO Drew Marsh not too long ago rejected these issues.

“Data facilities really need to be good neighbors. They have reputations that they need to shield, they usually need to be a part of the neighborhood,” Marsh told CNBC.

Separately, analysis printed in March 2026 by the Institute for Energy Research found no statistically vital correlation between the variety of information facilities in a state and its present electrical energy costs. Two different latest reports reached comparable conclusions.

Meanwhile, states are additionally transferring to protect their residents. Last week, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon signed an government order requiring information middle builders to cowl the grid prices their tasks create.

Whether related cost-shielding fashions reassure communities in India and past might form how briskly the following wave of AI services will get constructed.

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