An Indian business news publication has reported that Meta could build its first data center in India. The Economic Times did not name any sources in its report, but based on information from “several people aware of the matter”, the publication said that the data center could be built at a Tamil Nadu-based facility owned by Reliance, one of India’s largest business conglomerates owned by multi-billionaire Mukesh Ambani.
The report further said that the Mark Zuckerberg led tech giant had inked a deal with Reliance following discussions at the recently concluded pre-wedding celebrations of Ambani’s son Anant at Jamnagar in Gujarat. However, the publication also said that the size of the deal could not be ascertained independently.
Reliance has already entered the data center business via Digital Connexion, a three-way joint venture with US-based Digital Realty and Canada-based Brookfield Asset Management. Digital Connexion recently launched its first facility named MAA 10, that is built on a 10-acre campus in Chennai, the capital city of the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. MAA10 is the first phase of the 100MW-capable campus, and will initially offer 20MW of IT load. If the ET report is true, then this could be where Meta is expected to build its Indian data center.
India is Meta’s largest market, with over 300 million Facebook users, 350 million Instagram users and 480 million users of Whatsapp. At present, Indian content is serviced at Meta’s data center in Singapore. If Meta is indeed building a data center in India, then it will be able to not only process data faster, it will also be able to improve user experience and reduce transmission costs, said the report.