India Is Moving Fast to Build A.I. Data Centers. A Coastal City May Pay the Price.

A once-sleepy port destination has suddenly found itself at the center of India’s larger quandary over artificial intelligence, where many people question official enthusiasm over their city becoming the country’s data capital.

Visitors coming to the village of Tarluvada on the edges of Visakhapatnam city, on India’s southern coast, are greeted by a huge billboard with the faces of more than a dozen national and local politicians, declaring in bold colors: “Welcome, Google, Welcome!”

At the foot of a lush hill beyond, excavators flattened ground last month in preparation for a one-gigawatt data center that is part of Google’s $15 billion project here. The American tech giant is partnering with a billionaire ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose government sees data centers as essential to securing India’s place in the global build-out for the A.I. age.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/16/world/asia/india-ai-data-centers-google.html