Google will set up more AI data centres in India as demand grows, says cloud business CEO Thomas Kurian

KUALA LUMPUR, 22 JULY 2026 —

Headline: Google will set up more AI data centres in India as demand grows, says cloud business CEO Thomas Kurian Lead: A multi-year capital expansion plan will follow the $15-billion investment in Andhra Pradesh announced last October, Thomas Kurian, chief executive of Google Cloud, told Mint. Body: This is a Mint Premium article gifted to you. Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Google Cloud, the world’s third-largest cloud services firm, has plans in place to expand its artificial intelligence (AI)-ready data centres in India beyond the recently announced facility in Visakhapatnam, the company’s global chief executive officer (CEO) told Mint in an interview. “We are planning AI data centres in India over multiple years. When we announced our first investment (in October 2025), it was not meant to be our last investment. We definitely have plans beyond the current timeframe,” Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, said during his latest visit to India. The company announced its first data centre for AI workloads on 14 October last year, saying it would invest $15 billion over five years to set up a 1GW data centre in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. Kurian was in Mumbai on Monday as part of the company’s ‘CEO Day’ event with industry stakeholders, at which he met representatives of more than 100 startups and heads of large businesses. He said India is the company’s “largest business in Asia, and the fastest growing part of India is enterprises.” This, in turn, is pushing it to plan a greater capital outlay for data centres in India, and to double down on the market in the long run. “We’ve said globally that AI will be our primary driver of growth, and enterprise is how we’re pushing the adoption of AI through to customers. Most markets, including India, have a similar pattern, where market leaders are the early adopters of any technology, and then the rest follow through. Here, we’re seeing Pocket FM, Cred, HDFC Bank, the ICICI group, Manipal Hospitals and Apollo Hospitals, among other customers [take the lead],” the executive said. “These enterprises are using our Gemini Enterprise platform for core business processes such as patient data processing in healthcare, or fraud detection in financial services. Seeing their progress, smaller companies now also want to adopt the technology. This is helping us push enterprise cloud adoption in India,” Kurian said. Google’s cloud business generated $46 billion of revenue between April 2024 and March 2025, accounting for 14.6% of its global top line. Data from US market research firm Synergy from 5 May pegged Google as the world’s third-largest cloud services provider, with a 14% market share. The company’s registered India entity, Google Cloud India Pvt. Ltd, reported ₹ 2,065.4 crore of revenue as of fiscal year 2025 (FY25). Google often bills its cloud revenue through different global entities depending on which data centers are accessed. This means that even if an Indian client utilizes Google’s cloud infrastructure within India, the transaction might not be billed under Google Cloud India Pvt. Ltd. To tap these clients, Kurian said the company is open to integrating AI models and applications from other companies, such as Anthropic’s Claude. At the same time, he also said Google owns the “full stack” of AI, which helps it “optimize AI and cloud processing costs and increase margins.” “We own the chip, the AI models, the cloud platform, data centres and applications, too, which positions us uniquely to compete with our key rivals. This full stack also allows us to vertically integrate the running costs and other variables of AI, which gives us an advantage over the others.” Kurian is not alone in making this full-stack claim. On 17 April, Microsoft, which leads Google with a 21% share of the global cloud services market through Azure, said it now also has a similar approach to roping in clients for its cloud services. On 2 June, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella showcased the company’s own foundational AI models and custom chips. Both Microsoft and Amazon—which leads the global cloud services market with a 28% share through Amazon Web Services (AWS)—now have their own foundational models: Microsoft’s MAI family of models and Amazon’s Nova. Independent industry analysts said while Google has a huge advantage with its widely adopted enterprise work suite (Drive, Docs and Sheets), its biggest hurdle will be convincing companies to break their existing, long-term cloud contracts with competitors. “Companies don’t simply change their cloud providers on a whim, or for small changes and updates. Those that already work with AWS and Microsoft Azure will likely continue with them. The bigger point to note about India, though, is that it is a market where many small companies are going through digital transformation, migrating to cloud platforms and adopting AI—which would give Google and its rivals a large market to tap,” said Kashyap Kompella, AI analyst and founder of tech consultancy firm RPA2AI Research. Shouvik has been tracking the rise and shifts of India’s technology ecosystem for over a decade, across print, broadcast and web-first platforms. He&#x27;s been a tinkerer of machines and PCs since childhood, a habit he was thrilled to convert into his profession. This has led him to fascinating experiences of technologies around the world, which is what keeps him hooked to his job.<br><br>Shouvik likes to believe that he is one of the few technology journalists in India who can also code. He has also been writing about the rise of AI well before it became a household name, and has met some of the most fascinating people over the years through his work.<br><br>Shouvik writes about AI, Big Tech, data centres, electronics, semiconductors, cybersecurity, gaming, cryptocurrencies, and consumer technologies. He is most fond of the stories he has written during his time here at Mint, for which he also writes &#x27;Transformer&#x27;, a weekly technology newsletter, and hosts &#x27;Techcetra&#x27;, a weekly technology podcast.<br><br>Outside of work, Shouvik spends most of his time with Pixel, whom he believes is the world&#x27;s best dog. He is also an avid reader, a toy… (AI-assisted rewrite, based on the original source)

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