As India prepares to host the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in the national capital from February 16 to 20, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has underlined the country’s push to strengthen its artificial intelligence and cloud infrastructure, saying India is ready to host data from across the globe.
Speaking to PTI ahead of the summit, the Prime Minister said, "Data centres will be a massive job creator for our youth. We invite the whole world's data to reside in India. India is laying the foundation for a thriving AI ecosystem by expanding computing power and data centre infra capacity."
He is scheduled to inaugurate the India AI Impact Expo 2026 on Monday, which will run alongside the summit in New Delhi.
The emphasis on data infrastructure comes at a time when India’s installed data centre capacity has expanded significantly. By the close of 2025, capacity stood at 1.5 gigawatts across seven leading cities, and projections indicate it could exceed 1.7 gigawatts before the end of this year.
Industry experts view enhanced AI and cloud-based services, supported by locally stored data, as crucial for the country’s ambitions to grow into a trillion-dollar digital economy.
In the Union Budget 2026 presented earlier this month, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced incentives aimed at attracting global cloud players to operate from India.
"I propose to provide a tax holiday till 2047 to any foreign company that provides cloud services to customers globally by using data centre services from India. It will, however, need to provide services to Indian customers through an Indian reseller entity. I also propose to provide a safe harbour of 15% on cost in case the company providing data centre services from India is a related entity," Sitharaman said.
The budget also focused on strengthening strategic mineral supply chains that are expected to support emerging technologies.
Referring to the earlier launch of a scheme, Sitharaman said, "The scheme for rare earth permanent magnets was launched in November 2025. We now propose to support the mineral-rich states of Odisha, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Tamil Nadu to establish dedicated rare earth corridors to promote mining, processing, research, and manufacturing."
Meanwhile, global technology firms are expanding their footprint in India. Last year, Google announced a $15 billion investment over five years to build an artificial intelligence data centre in Andhra Pradesh.
The company plans to develop a 1 GW campus in Visakhapatnam that will integrate AI infrastructure, large-scale energy systems, and an expanded fibre-optic network, marking its largest AI hub outside the United States.
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