Google’s $15 billion Andhra AI campus clears 2.51GW amid a Tarluvada land fight
Google is building a $15 billion AI datacentre in the Andhra Pradesh village of Tarluvada that is set to be the company's largest hyperscale AI campus outside the United States, The Guardian's Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Aakash Hassan report Sep. 26.
Locals say smallholdings were taken back by the government for the project. A hyperscale campus is a data-center build at enormous power scale for AI training and inference. Village head BRB Naidu said: "We have learned that America does not want the problems of datacentres and so now Google is bringing them here."
The project was publicly announced as a 1GW build. Google told the Guardian it is an unspecific "gigawatt scale AI hub," "comparable to other projects." State environmental clearances grant permission for 2.51GW, equivalent to two large nuclear reactors at full output.
Over a year, that draw amounts to upwards of 30% of Andhra Pradesh's current energy consumption in a state of more than 55 million people. Google pledged to help generate "new, clean energy." About 75% of India's electricity generation currently comes from fossil fuels.
Google has partnered with the Adani Group to build the project. The campus encompasses three separate datacentres around the state capital Vizakhapatnam. One other site near Tarluvada sits metres from a reserve forest, a drinking-water reservoir, and a wildlife sanctuary home to endangered species including leopards.
Despite that footprint, the state issued environmental clearances to Google in just nine days, with no public consultation. Three petitions to India's National Green Tribunal allege the government's environmental and water-risk assessment was "grossly inadequate, scientifically unrealistic, and misleading." A public litigation has also been filed in the Andhra Pradesh high court.
Deforestation required for the project is more than 100 acres. Google said the project would use air-cooling instead of water and told the Guardian it would have "no expected impact" on the local community. Farmer Venkat Surynarayana, 40, said officials measuring land "never mentioned anything about risks of pollution or water or heat."
Subsidies and incentives to Google are estimated at 220bn rupees ($2.2bn) over 20 years, from tax breaks and discounted land to cheap electricity and water. T Applaraju, 40, is one of 520 local families in Tarluvada who recently had land taken back that the government allocated 20 years ago. He claims no notice until April this year, when security guards working for Adani erected fences.
Farmer P Venkat Rao said he was pressured to give up his only acre, received $40,000 compensation, and that a promise of replacement land and one job per family had not materialised.
The state government claims no lands were forcibly taken and cites "generous compensation" to eligible owners. Adani says necessary legal approvals were given. Google said it had "engaged deeply" with local communities and that the project would generate thousands of jobs around Vizakhapatnam.
The overseas AI factory is landing as a land-and-power fight in a village that was sold a tech hub.