Meta has made its first investment in AI infrastructure in India - a 168-megawatt data center in Jamnagar, Gujarat, in partnership with Reliance Industries. The center is to go live in two years, with an option to expand, will be powered from renewable sources and cooled with desalinated seawater. The bill for electricity and water, all of it, is paid by Meta.

This isn't the first encounter between the two companies. The collaboration began in 2020 with Meta's stake of 5.7 billion dollars (around 4.9 billion euros) in Jio Platforms, and last year the two firms opened a 100-million-dollar joint venture for AI solutions for Indian and foreign clients. Now Reliance gets the whole package: design, construction, renewable electricity, connection and ongoing operation. Meta has additionally contracted nearly 1 gigawatt of renewable capacity through CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy.

The more interesting question is why everyone is suddenly running to India. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, OpenAI and Uber have already announced major AI and cloud investments there. AirTrunk, backed by Blackstone, announced 30 billion dollars for 5 gigawatts of capacity by 2030. Domestic giants Adani and Tata Consultancy Services are lining up their plans. India's data-center capacity grew from about 375 megawatts in 2020 to around 1.5 gigawatts in 2025 - and projections say over 8 gigawatts by the end of the decade.

The answer, as usual, is in the taxes. New Delhi has offered foreign cloud providers a tax exemption until 2047 for services to abroad performed from Indian data centers. When a state offers a quarter-century tax-free, „strategic partnerships" multiply on their own.

What's missing from the announcement is just as telling: not the value of the deal, nor which AI tasks will run in Jamnagar, nor whether Meta plans more centers in India. The blank spots in announcements like these are usually where the real bill lives.