India’s Reliance is building a one-gigawatt data center for artificial intelligence that will run on Nvidia’s Blackwell GPUs. This ambitious project raises questions about whether India’s power grid can support such a significant energy demand.
At our #AIsummit in Mumbai, our CEO Jensen Huang and Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani discussed #AI infrastructure investments that will revolutionize industries and position India as a global leader. Read the recap on our blog: https://t.co/UfiDKRnpMA @RIL_Updates
— NVIDIA (@nvidia) October 24, 2024
Jensen Huang, CEO of Nvidia, said, “In the future, India is going to be the country that will export AI.
You have the fundamental ingredients – AI, data, AI infrastructure, and a large population of users.”
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The specific details about the data center’s specifications or computing capability have not been disclosed. This could potentially be the world’s first gigawatt-class data center fully dedicated to AI training. Modern data centers for commercial workloads already use significantly more power than leading-edge supercomputers.
Shri Mukesh Ambani and NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang discuss India's emergence as a global innovation hub. 🇮🇳#Reliance #Jio #NVIDIAAISummit #AIRevolution #AI #India @nvidia pic.twitter.com/JqbemefIRN
— Reliance Jio (@reliancejio) October 25, 2024
India exported software; in the future, India will export AI: Nvidia founder & CEO Jensen Huang
https://t.co/axxUvee1qH via @narendramodi— MyIIPAलोकप्रशासन (@iipa9) October 25, 2024
For example, Meta’s data center campus in Prineville, Oregon, was the largest electricity consumer for the company in 2023, using 1.375 GWh. In the U.S., the capability of the power grid is a limiting factor for next-generation AI data centers. This could be a consideration for Reliance as well, as all of India’s data centers are estimated to consume around 193 GW in 2024.
The involvement of prominent companies in this project indicates that there is a strong plan behind this major data center. Whether or not India’s power grid will be prepared to handle the gigawatt-class data center remains to be seen, but the venture signals a significant step forward in India’s AI infrastructure capabilities. Nvidia’s Jensen Huang has partnered with Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, to develop artificial intelligence infrastructure and increase the adoption of AI in India.
The executives announced a significant new data center by Ambani’s Reliance Ltd. in India, which will use Nvidia’s latest Blackwell chips.
Reliance’s AI data center energy hurdle
India, with 1.4 billion people, is becoming a key player in AI, with sectors such as agriculture, education, and manufacturing adopting the technology to increase efficiency. Global tech companies like Nvidia are investing in the rapidly growing Indian economy, seeing it as an alternative to China. Huang noted, “India produced and exported software.
In the future, India will export AI.”
A 1-gigawatt Reliance data center under construction in Gujarat state will be among the first to deploy Nvidia’s powerful new Blackwell chips. Nvidia also has partnerships with Web Services, which is set to start using the Blackwell product, expecting them to be online with Blackwell-based servers by early 2025. Nvidia acknowledged that producing Blackwell proved to be more challenging than expected and mentioned it is making changes to improve its manufacturing yield.
Nvidia also announced collaborations with Indian firms such as Tech Mahindra Ltd., to build a Hindi large language model, and e-commerce giant Flipkart, to develop conversational customer-service systems. Nvidia will also work with Indian health-care companies to enhance productivity in patient care and research. Huang has traveled globally this year, promoting the adoption of AI technologies, which he calls a “new industrial revolution.” Nvidia, which started its operations in Bangalore two decades ago, now has development centers in four Indian cities with about 4,000 engineers, its largest employee base outside the US.
About a year ago, Nvidia entered into preliminary agreements to build AI data centers with local conglomerates, including Reliance and the Tata Group. Reliance Industries is developing a suite of AI tools and applications called JioBrain, as Ambani highlighted at the company’s shareholders’ meeting in August where he mentioned AI numerous times. India has become increasingly important for global tech companies as US-China tensions have heightened.
Nvidia’s business with China has been limited by Washington’s trade restrictions. During a recent meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the US, Huang emphasized “India’s moment.”
While India has a growing digital economy, its AI infrastructure is still in its early stages. The Indian government has allocated $1.2 billion under the IndiaAI Mission to establish data centers that are crucial for building and commercializing AI technologies.
Noah Nguyen is a multi-talented developer who brings a unique perspective to his craft. Initially a creative writing professor, he turned to Dev work for the ability to work remotely. He now lives in Seattle, spending time hiking and drinking craft beer with his fiancee.
