Artificial Intelligence (AI) is advancing rapidly worldwide, and India is now in the spotlight. OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, is planning to bring its mega Stargate project to India—a $500 billion (approximately Rs 44 lakh crore) initiative aimed at building new AI infrastructure.

Partnership Talks with Indian Data Centers and Reliance

According to reports, OpenAI is in preliminary discussions with Indian data center companies including Sify Technologies, Yota Data Services, E2E Networks, and CTRLs Datacenters. In parallel, the global AI giant has been engaging with Reliance Industries, led by Asia’s richest businessman Mukesh Ambani, for the last six months. Reliance is already planning the world’s largest data center in Jamnagar, Gujarat, making the collaboration strategically important.

Discussions have focused on data center capacities, space expansion, and uninterrupted power supply—critical factors for supporting such a massive AI infrastructure.

Government Encourages Local Investment

The Indian government has requested that OpenAI bring a significant portion of the Stargate project to India and store and process Indian data locally. Officials highlighted that India is becoming a major AI market, capable of generating substantial revenue, and hosting a local AI stack would also improve service speed and reduce latency.

The Scale of the Stargate Project

• Investment: $500 billion over four years.

• Initial equity funders: SoftBank, OpenAI, Oracle, and MGX (chaired by SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son).

• Tech partners: Arm, Microsoft, Nvidia, Oracle, and OpenAI.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently stated that India is the company’s second-largest market after the US and could soon become the biggest due to rapid growth. The company is expanding its local presence with a new office in New Delhi, increased hiring, and customer-focused pricing. Altman is expected to visit India later this month.

India’s AI Infrastructure Gap

Currently, India accounts for less than 1% of global AI computing capacity, highlighting a massive gap. For perspective, a 1-gigawatt hyperscale AI data center would require approximately 135,000 Nvidia B100 Blackwell chips and 1.3 gigawatts of continuous power. India’s current non-AI data center capacity is under 1 gigawatt, posing a major challenge—but also a huge opportunity.

Local Developments Boost Feasibility

• Google Cloud plans a 1-gigawatt data center and power infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh with a $6 billion investment.

• Reliance Industries intends to build the world’s largest new energy giga complex in Jamnagar with 1-gigawatt capacity and a $10 billion (Rs 75,000 crore) investment.

With these developments, India is positioning itself as a key player in global AI infrastructure, and OpenAI’s Stargate project could accelerate the country’s AI ambitions significantly.