Meta Platforms is likely to establish its first data center in India at the Reliance Industries campus in Chennai, according to a report in the Economic Times.
Meta aims to enable the processing of user-generated content across its apps like Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
The exact value of the deal remains unrevealed, said the report. The proposed data center is expected to be established on 10 acres of the RIL campus located in the Ambattur Industrial area.
According to the report, the agreement between Meta and RIL was finalized at the pre-wedding ceremony of Mukesh Ambani’s son, Anant Ambani. The local data center is expected to benefit users and reduce costs.
Presently, Meta’s Indian users’ data is serviced at the company’s Singapore center. Locally established data centers are expected to enhance Meta’s operational capacities. There are plans to establish four to five nodes across various locations within India, which is likely to enhance the speed of data processing in one of the largest markets, the report stated. As the data center will be in India, users may experience faster content delivery and a reduction in transmission costs associated with global data centers.
Experts suggest that Meta’s decision to establish local data centers may be influenced by the tightening scrutiny over large artificial intelligence (AI) models by the government.
Facebook has 314.6 million Indian users, Instagram has 350 million, and WhatsApp has 480 million users in India. Collectively, this translates into millions of users, and Meta’s advertisement revenue from click-to-message ads in the country has witnessed a surge.
Highlighting the importance of having Greenfield data centers in major key regions, Neil Shah of Counterpoint Research told the English daily that it has strategic importance given the volume of users in the country.
He also pointed out that India has a large untapped market. “If you look at the installed smartphone user base, which is close to 850 million, trying to localize user-generated content and ads is a prudent strategy as it will reduce latency, enhance AI-driven recommendations, and save transmission costs from Singapore and other hubs,” he said.
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