VISAKHAPATNAM: India is gearing up to construct a monumental "data city" in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, as part of its sweeping strategy to bridge the artificial intelligence (AI) gap with the United States and China. This ambitious project has caught the eye of global investors, with Andhra Pradesh's IT Minister Nara Lokesh highlighting its potential to ignite AI growth in the region.

Minister Lokesh was candid about the urgent need for India to embrace the AI revolution. "The AI revolution is here, no second thoughts about it," he stated emphatically. He revealed that Andhra Pradesh has already secured investment agreements worth an astonishing $175 billion across 760 projects. Among these, Google's commitment of $15 billion for its largest AI infrastructure hub outside the United States stands out, alongside a significant partnership involving Reliance Industries and foreign firms.

Once primarily recognized for its cricket stadium, Visakhapatnam is rapidly morphing into a tech mecca. The city is being marketed as a critical access point for submarine internet cables connecting India to Singapore, furthering its appeal as a digital destination. Lokesh also outlined a unique vision for the data city: it will be constructed within a single ecosystem covering a 100-kilometer radius. He cited that Andhra Pradesh accounted for nearly 25 percent of all foreign direct investments in India in 2025, underscoring its attractiveness to global investors.

Lokesh, a Stanford graduate and the son of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, is proactively engaging companies specializing in server production and data center cooling systems. The state is offering remarkable incentives, such as land at only one cent per acre for key investors. Despite some critics pointing to India's current limitations in high-end computing capabilities and commercial AI deployment, Lokesh remains optimistic about the economic opportunities these industrial developments will create.

With the planning for significant energy and water requirements already underway, Lokesh mentioned plans to utilize "surplus water" flowing into the Bay of Bengal to cool vast data centers. Drawing inspiration from China's rapid poverty alleviation through industrialization, he expressed a desire to replicate similar industrial clusters in India.