Google's $15bn India AI hub faces land battles — SkimNews
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- Google is building a $15bn AI datacentre in Tarluvada, Andhra Pradesh, in partnership with the Adani Group — its largest hyperscale AI facility outside the US, encompassing three sites around Vizakhapatnam
- State environmental clearances issued in just nine days reveal the project is approved at 2.51GW capacity, more than double the publicly announced 1GW and equivalent to two large nuclear reactors running at full output
- India's National Green Tribunal has received three petitions alleging the state's environmental assessment was 'grossly inadequate, scientifically unrealistic, and misleading,' alongside a separate public-interest litigation in the Andhra Pradesh high court
- 520 families in Tarluvada had land confiscated; 47 Dalit farmers say promised replacement plots and one job per family never materialised after receiving $40,000 each in compensation
- Tarluvada village already faces 45°C summers, water stress, and over 100 acres of deforestation; one datacentre site sits metres from reserve forest, a drinking water reservoir, and a wildlife sanctuary home to endangered leopards
- Andhra Pradesh's state government offered Google subsidies estimated at 220bn rupees ($2.2bn) over 20 years and has separately approved a 1GW AI datacentre for Reliance Industries
Why it matters: Andhra Pradesh cleared Google's datacentre in nine days at a publicly announced 1GW, though approvals actually cover 2.51GW — equal to two nuclear reactors and 30% of state electricity consumption. Three NGT petitions and a high court suit now challenge that approval, while 520 families allege their land was fenced off without notice for a project subsidized with $2.2bn in state incentives.
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