Istafa Ali
Meta, led by Mark Zuckerberg, is reportedly making its debut in India by establishing its inaugural data center on the Chennai premises of Reliance Industries, which is under the ownership of Mukesh Ambani, the wealthiest individual in Asia.
This move marks the entry of the conglomerate behind popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp into the Indian market, with a focus on generating region-specific content for these platforms. This initiative was highlighted in a Hindustan Times article, which referenced reports from the Economic Times involving individuals familiar with the matter.
The decision to partner with Reliance was finalized during the pre-wedding festivities of Anant Ambani and Radhika Merchant in early March, although the financial details of the agreement have not been disclosed.
Meta’s strategy includes setting up four to five nodes at various locations throughout India to improve the speed of data processing.
At present, Meta processes data from Indian users at its center in Singapore. However, establishing a local center in India is expected to enhance local advertising, the user experience, and reduce the costs associated with data transmission, as per the report.
Furthermore, the report mentioned that Reliance Industries has collaborated with Brookfield Asset Management, a Canadian investment firm, and Digital Realty, a real estate investment trust, to construct the campus.
The planned campus, spanning 10 acres in Chennai’s Ambattur Industrial Estate, will have the capability to support up to 100MW IT load capacity.
Neil Shah, a partner at Counterpoint Research, was quoted in the report stating that Meta’s goal is to set up greenfield data centers in strategic locations including Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Delhi NCR to meet its substantial infrastructure needs, ranging from fiber optics to power supply.
Despite India having the highest number of users, the market remains under-served with the installed base of smartphone users nearing 850 million.
Shah noted that localizing user-generated content and advertisements is a wise approach as it will decrease latency, improve AI-driven suggestions, and cut down on the costs of data transmission from Singapore and other locations.
