Meta Chooses India: First Data Center to Thrive at Reliance Industries' Chennai Campus

• 02 Apr 2024
• TM Team
• 0 Comments

In a strategic move, Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, is reportedly gearing up to establish its maiden data center in India. The decision, as per a report from The Economic Times, signals Meta's keen interest in tapping into the vast potential of the Indian market. Talks between Meta and Reliance Industries paved the way for this ground breaking initiative, with Chennai emerging as the chosen destination for the data center.

This exciting development underscores Meta's commitment to enhancing user experiences and streamlining operations. By localizing data processing for Indian users at the Reliance Industries campus in Chennai, Meta aims to expedite data processing, thereby offering users a faster and more seamless digital experience. Furthermore, the move is anticipated to yield cost efficiencies, aligning with Meta's strategic objectives.

The forthcoming data center, situated within the sprawling Chennai campus jointly developed by Brookfield Asset Management, Reliance Industries, and Digital Realty, boasts extensive infrastructure capabilities, including a robust 100-Megawatt IT load capacity. As Meta ventures into this new frontier, all eyes are on the transformative impact it could have on the digital landscape of India."Meta's investment is also seen as a response to increased scrutiny over AI technologies by the Indian government. The local data center will support AI-driven applications, including Meta's Llama series of large language models, enhancing the development and fine-tuning of AI applications within India.

Meta's user base in India significantly exceeds its US user base, and the company has reported a substantial increase in advertisement revenue from India during its last quarterly earnings call. 

The expansion of Meta's data center operations in India is reflective of a larger trend among tech giants to localise data storage and processing, in line with India's growing data center industry and stricter rules introduced by the Personal Data Protection Act.