TheInterviewTimes.com | February 20, 2026 | 01:29 AM IST | New Delhi
India AI Impact Summit 2026: Sundar Pichai announces a $15 billion AI investment to build India’s first mega AI hub in Visakhapatnam with gigawatt compute capacity.
In a landmark announcement at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, unveiled a $15 billion investment to establish India’s first mega artificial intelligence hub in Visakhapatnam. The announcement was made during his keynote address at Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
The proposed AI hub will be developed over a five-year period from 2026 to 2030 and is expected to become Google’s largest AI infrastructure project outside the United States.
At the AI impact summit our message is clear: we believe India is going to have an extraordinary trajectory with AI, and we want to be a partner.
— Sundar Pichai (@sundarpichai) February 18, 2026
To help, we have launched new America-India Connect subsea cable routes building on our $15B investment in India’s infrastructure,… pic.twitter.com/pb0xH9XbgX
Visakhapatnam AI Hub: Gigawatt-Scale Compute and Subsea Connectivity
The upcoming facility in Visakhapatnam will function as a full-stack AI hub featuring gigawatt-scale compute capacity. A major highlight of the project is the creation of a new international subsea cable gateway, designed to strengthen India’s global digital connectivity.
According to Pichai, the hub will support sovereign AI requirements, ensuring local data storage and secure infrastructure for enterprises and government institutions. The facility will deploy advanced Google AI models including Gemini, Imagen, and Veo for businesses and users across India.
During his address, Pichai shared a personal memory of passing through Visakhapatnam aboard the Coromandel Express while traveling to IIT Kharagpur as a student, describing the investment as both strategic and sentimental.
Strategic Partnerships Powering the Project
The infrastructure development will be executed through key partnerships:
- AdaniConneX, a joint venture between the Adani Group and EdgeConneX, will lead the data center campus development.
- Bharti Airtel will build the purpose-designed data center and cable landing station in Visakhapatnam.
- Airtel will also deploy intra-city and inter-city fiber networks to support high-speed connectivity.
- AdaniConneX has committed to green energy integration to ensure sustainable and energy-efficient operations.
Pichai had earlier briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the initiative, aligning it with India’s long-term digital transformation roadmap.
Push for Responsible and Inclusive AI
At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Pichai emphasized the need for transparent, responsible, and outcome-driven AI systems. He described India as a blueprint for global AI democratization due to its diverse linguistic ecosystem and strong digital public infrastructure.
Google also announced multiple skilling initiatives:
- Launch of a Professional Certificate program in English and Hindi.
- Collaboration with Karmayogi Bharat to train 20 million public servants across 800 districts in 18 languages.
- Support for 11 million students through 10,000 Atal Tinkering Labs.
- Deployment of secure cloud services via Google Cloud.
These programs aim to strengthen India’s AI-ready workforce and broaden digital access.
Top News: Anthropic’s India Revenue Doubles in 4 Months as Air India, Cognizant Embrace Claude Code AI
Global Leadership Presence at the Summit
The India AI Impact Summit 2026, held from February 16 to 20 at Bharat Mandapam, drew more than 500 global experts. Key attendees included:
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi
- French President Emmanuel Macron
- UN Secretary-General António Guterres
- OpenAI CEO Sam Altman
Modi reiterated India’s MANAV vision for human-centric AI development, while Macron praised India Stack’s digital innovation framework and called for collaborative AI governance among nations.
Broader Impact on India’s AI Ecosystem
The Visakhapatnam AI hub is expected to position the city as a global AI node, with subsea cable links planned to the United States, Singapore, South Africa, and Australia.
Beyond infrastructure, the project is projected to generate thousands of direct and indirect jobs, stimulate local economies, and attract global technology investments. It also strengthens India’s ambition under the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision to become a developed digital economy.
Pichai described artificial intelligence as “the biggest platform shift of our lifetime,” emphasizing that the focus must move from experimentation to real-world AI impact, adoption, and scalable infrastructure.
With this $15 billion commitment, Google’s investment marks one of the largest foreign technology infrastructure bets in India’s history, signaling the country’s rising prominence in the global AI race.
