Google says its $15bn AI hub at Visakhapatnam will use air cooling, as residents and activists fight the project over water and land

Google has defended its planned $15bn gigawatt-scale AI data-centre hub near Visakhapatnam, in Andhra Pradesh, India, AFP reported on 11 October, in a story carried by Gulf News and the Kuwait Times. Local residents fear the project will harm their environment and their lives, and activists are demanding “a moratorium on new data centres across Andhra Pradesh” until the impact is better understood, AFP reported.

Alexander Smith, Google's head of infrastructure and energy for Asia-Pacific, told AFP that a water assessment “pointed to pressure on the local watershed.” “That finding shaped our choice of cooling configuration from the outset,” he said, explaining Google's choice of “advanced air cooling” over water cooling. In August, WION reported that Google had not publicly detailed its water sourcing or cooling design for the site.

Smith also told AFP that Google aims to replenish 120% of the freshwater it uses by 2030, and that a project of this kind is projected to generate about $688m a year in local economic activity. AFP says the hub is due to become operational in 2028. These are Google's claims in an interview; no Google statement of its own was found.

The project is also being fought in court. In August, WION reported that the Human Rights Forum had filed three further cases in India's environmental court, alongside a public-interest petition in the Andhra Pradesh High Court.

• Claimed Google chose “advanced air cooling” after an assessment “pointed to pressure on the local watershed,” Alexander Smith told AFP, as carried by Gulf News. Gulf News (AFP)
• Claimed Smith said Google aims to replenish 120% of the freshwater it uses by 2030, and that the project is projected to bring about $688m a year in local economic activity, AFP reported in the Kuwait Times. Kuwait Times (AFP)
• Reported The Human Rights Forum has filed three further cases in India's environmental court against the project, WION reported in August. WION