Reliance Industries Chairman, Mukesh Ambani intends to construct the biggest data center in the world in Jamnagar, Gujarat, India. With an anticipated three gigawatt total capacity, the plant would be a significant advancement in India’s technology sector, easily surpassing existing international standards by a significant amount.
In contrast, today’s biggest operational data centers, which are primarily in the US, are smaller than one gigawatt. Reliance is procuring AI semiconductors from Nvidia Corporation to back up this bold initiative. The complex computations needed by AI-driven tools like ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms depend on these high-performance CPUs.
Mukesh Ambani’s decision was not made at random. To meet the increasing demand for AI services, big companies such as Google, Amazon, and Microsoft have been investing billions of dollars on extending the capacity of their data centers.
A group comprising Oracle, SoftBank, and OpenAI revealed earlier this week that they would invest up to $500 billion in AI infrastructure through a project named Stargate.
The project’s scale and estimated cost are both unparalleled. Industry estimates put the cost of building such a large facility at $20 and $30 billion. It would be difficult to finance such a project even with Reliance Industries’ about $26 billion in cash reserves. The business has not yet responded to the reports.
Ambani’s approach seems to be comparable to his technique in the telecom industry, where Reliance Jio disrupted the market by providing services at competitive costs. This time, the goal is to reduce the cost of AI inferencing, which is the computing process that powers AI models. This process can be unaffordable for both new and established businesses.
Reliance’s petrochemical and oil refining facilities are already located in Jamnagar, which will now be a key location for the company’s efforts to advance AI and renewable energy. With Reliance constructing solar, wind, and green hydrogen projects close by, it is anticipated that the data center will be primarily powered by renewable energy.
Experts note that fossil fuels or big battery storage devices could still be needed to guarantee a steady energy supply for such a large installation.
