OpenAI to build India data center infrastructure with TCS

NEW DELHI

U.S. ChatGPT maker OpenAI and Indian IT giant Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) announced Thursday a plan to build data center infrastructure in the South Asian country.

"This infrastructure will power next-generation AI workloads and position India as a global AI hub," the companies said in a statement.

Data centers that can train and run AI systems are under construction worldwide on a massive scale, as companies race to develop super-intelligent technologies.

But the huge amounts of electricity needed to power them and water to cool hot servers have sparked alarm at a time when countries have pledged to decarbonise their grids to try and slow climate change.

Thursday, OpenAI and TCS unveiled a "multi-year partnership to develop AI infrastructure in India".

In the initial phase, TCS will build data centres with 100 megawatts of electric power capacity "with an option to scale to 1GW 8gigawatt]."

This capacity for computing power is often referred to as "hyperscale."

U.S. tech firms have rushed to announce deals and investments at this week's AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.

On Feb. 18, Google said it would build new subsea cables from India and chip titan Nvidia unveiled tie-ups with computing firms to provide advanced processors for AI data centres.

IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said Feb. 17 that India expects more than $200 billion in investments over the next two years, including roughly $90 billion already committed.