India has long been spoken of as the world's next major AI infrastructure market. In June 2026, that conversation became concrete. Meta Platforms — the company behind Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp — signed its first major data centre agreement in India, partnering with Reliance Industries, the country's largest conglomerate, to build a 168 megawatt AI-enabled facility in Jamnagar, Gujarat.

This is not a press release dressed up as a deal. The Jamnagar project is a fully committed, end-to-end infrastructure investment that will shape how Meta deploys AI for its 500+ million Indian users — and signals a strategic shift in where the world's biggest technology companies are choosing to build.

1. The Deal at a Glance

Under the agreement, Reliance Industries will build and operate the entire Jamnagar facility — covering design, construction, utility management, renewable power supply, network connectivity, and managed operational services. Meta will lease the 168 MW of capacity, paying for all energy and water required to support its operations at the site.

The facility is expected to be operational within two years, with contractual options to scale capacity further beyond the initial 168 MW. It will become Meta's first built-to-suit data centre capacity in India — purpose-built for the AI and compute demands of Meta's platforms and AI products.

2. Why Jamnagar? The Strategic Logic

Jamnagar is not a random choice. The city in Gujarat has emerged as one of India's most significant locations for large-scale industrial and infrastructure projects, and Reliance Industries has deep roots there — the Jamnagar refinery complex is already one of the largest in the world.

• Land availability: Jamnagar offers the large-footprint sites that a 168 MW data centre campus requires — at scale, without the land constraints of metropolitan centres like Mumbai or Bengaluru.
• Energy access: The region has strong energy infrastructure and is well-positioned for the renewable energy tie-ups that sustainability-conscious AI operators like Meta require.
• Coastal location: Proximity to the Arabian Sea enables the seawater desalination cooling systems that make large-scale, water-efficient AI data centres viable in India's climate.
• Reliance's existing presence: With Reliance already building a major data centre campus in Jamnagar, Meta is leveraging a ready, proven environment rather than starting from greenfield.
• Government support: Gujarat's government has been proactive in attracting global technology investment, with dedicated infrastructure zones and favourable policy frameworks for data centre development.

3. Green Infrastructure — Renewable Energy & Cooling

The environmental profile of this data centre is one of the more remarkable aspects of the announcement. AI workloads are notoriously power-hungry and water-intensive. The Jamnagar facility is being designed to address both challenges at scale.

Renewable Energy at 1 GW Scale

Alongside the Jamnagar data centre announcement, Meta confirmed new renewable energy partnerships with two Indian firms — CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy. Together, these agreements will add approximately 1 GW of new renewable energy capacity, dedicated to supporting the facility's power needs. At that scale, the Jamnagar data centre could become one of the most renewably-powered AI infrastructure projects in Asia.

Seawater Desalination Cooling

Traditional data centres consume enormous volumes of freshwater for cooling — a serious constraint in regions under water stress. The Jamnagar facility will use seawater desalination to meet its cooling requirements, removing freshwater consumption from the equation entirely. This approach, while operationally complex, is well-suited to Jamnagar's coastal location and sets a sustainability benchmark for AI infrastructure in India.

4. A Long-Term Relationship: Meta & Reliance

The Jamnagar data centre is the latest chapter in a strategic relationship between Meta and Reliance that now spans six years and multiple billions of dollars of committed capital.

For Reliance, this deal transforms it into a global anchor AI infrastructure provider — a role that carries long-term strategic and commercial value well beyond the lease revenues from this single facility. For Meta, India becomes a genuine AI infrastructure base, not just a market to serve from overseas capacity.

5. What the Leaders Are Saying

The framing from both sides is deliberate: this is positioned not as a vendor-client transaction, but as a long-term strategic commitment to India's role in global AI. That positioning matters — it signals to other global technology companies that India is ready to compete for the largest AI infrastructure investments.

6. India's AI Infrastructure Future

The Meta–Reliance deal is happening against a backdrop of extraordinary momentum in Indian data centre investment. The numbers tell a clear story.

The growth from 1,700 MW to 8,000 MW by 2030 represents nearly a fivefold increase in capacity. AI is the primary driver — AI workloads require dramatically more power, more cooling, and more specialised infrastructure than the cloud and e-commerce workloads that drove the previous decade of data centre growth.

India's government has been an active enabler — through dedicated data centre infrastructure policies, tax incentives for technology investment, and a proactive approach to attracting global cloud and AI operators. The Jamnagar announcement is, in part, a return on that policy investment.

7. What This Means for Tech Businesses

For Software Developers & AI Teams

The Jamnagar facility is specifically designed to support Meta's Llama model localisation for the Indian market, with an initial focus on finance and healthcare sectors. That means Indian-market AI applications — built on Llama — will have dedicated, low-latency compute capacity available in-country. For developers building on Meta's AI stack for Indian users, this is significant infrastructure news.

For UK Businesses Watching India

India's AI infrastructure build-out creates new opportunities for UK technology businesses — in cloud services, software integration, AI application development, and the entire ecosystem of services that surrounds major data centre campuses. Companies that build relationships with the Indian market now, as infrastructure is being laid, will be better positioned as that capacity becomes operational.

For the Global AI Infrastructure Race

The Meta–Reliance deal is one of several major announcements positioning India alongside the US, Europe, and Southeast Asia as a core geography for AI compute. Google, Microsoft, and Amazon have all committed large-scale Indian investments. The speed and scale of this race has no precedent in the history of digital infrastructure. Businesses and investors paying attention to where the world's compute capacity is being built are watching India closely in 2026.

8. Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Meta and Reliance AI data centre deal?

Meta Platforms and Reliance Industries have agreed to build a 168 MW AI-enabled data centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Reliance will design, build, and operate the facility end-to-end, while Meta will lease the full 168 MW of capacity. This is Meta's first built-to-suit data centre in India.

Why is the data centre being built in Jamnagar?

Jamnagar offers the land availability, coastal access for seawater cooling, energy infrastructure, and Reliance's existing data centre campus — making it a strategic choice for a large-scale AI infrastructure project. Gujarat's government has also been proactive in attracting global technology investment.

What is the capacity of the Jamnagar AI data centre?

The facility will launch with 168 megawatts of initial capacity, with contractual options to expand beyond this in the future. It will be supported by approximately 1 GW of renewable energy from CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy.

What is the history between Meta and Reliance?

In 2020, Meta invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms for a 9.99% stake. In 2025, the two companies formed a $100 million joint venture focused on enterprise AI solutions. The Jamnagar data centre is the latest and largest commitment in this multi-year strategic relationship.

What does the Meta–Reliance deal mean for India's AI future?

India's data centre capacity is projected to reach 8 GW by 2030, up from approximately 1,700 MW in 2025. The Meta–Reliance deal accelerates that trajectory, positions India as a global AI infrastructure hub, and signals to other major technology companies that India is ready to host world-class AI compute at scale.

Will this affect UK businesses?

Yes — indirectly and increasingly directly. UK businesses serving Indian markets will benefit from improved AI infrastructure. UK technology companies with Indian development teams gain access to better compute resources. And the global race for AI infrastructure is reshaping cloud pricing, AI model availability, and software development economics worldwide.