Google secured environmental clearance for a 2.51-gigawatt AI datacentre in Andhra Pradesh — more than double the 1GW the company announced publicly — while American utilities struggle to keep the lights on under the weight of EPA rulemaking and green mandates. That's the power equivalent of two large nuclear reactors, enough to supply over 30% of the entire Indian state's annual electricity consumption, headed to a country whose grid runs 75% on coal.
The project matters because it exposes the deal American policymakers have made: they'll hamstring domestic energy production in the name of climate, then watch Big Tech build the same infrastructure overseas where nobody asks permission. India's government cleared this project in nine days with no public hearing. Try getting a permit for a natural gas plant in Pennsylvania.
According to clearance papers seen by the Guardian, Google's $15 billion Visakhapatnam AI hub — its largest hyperscale datacentre outside the US — was publicly pitched at 1GW. The actual approved capacity more than doubles that. Google would only call it a "gigawatt-scale AI hub" that was "comparable to other projects" when pressed.
The state government, allied with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's party, fast-tracked approvals through a partnership with the Adani Group, one of India's most politically connected conglomerates. The Adani Group said all legal approvals are in place. The state government said no land was taken by force and those who qualified were paid well.
The villagers of Tarluvada tell a different story. The Guardian reported that 520 families had land taken back that the government had given them roughly 20 years ago. Security guards working for the Adani Group put up fences in April and blocked farmers from plots they had worked for years. Forty-seven Dalit farmers were paid for their land, but some said they have not received the new plots and jobs they were promised. Farmer P Venkat Rao told the Guardian he received $40,000 for his only acre but now has no livelihood: "I am a farmer, without my land I am nothing."
The village head, BRB Naidu, put it plainly: "We have learned that America does not want the problems of datacentres and so now Google is bringing them here."
He's not wrong. The same environmental and land-use concerns that stall domestic energy projects get steamrolled abroad. One of the three project sites sits meters from a reserve forest, a drinking water reservoir, and a wildlife sanctuary. The Human Rights Forum has filed three petitions at India's National Green Tribunal, and a separate case is before the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
Then there's the subsidy package. Tax breaks, cheap land, power, and water for Google are estimated at 220 billion rupees — roughly $2.2 billion — over 20 years, according to the Guardian. Google says the site will be air-cooled, not water-cooled, and will create thousands of jobs. That's a lot of corporate welfare for a company that can afford to build its own infrastructure.
TNW framed this primarily as a capacity story — Google scaling up beyond its announced footprint. The Guardian led with displaced farmers and broken promises, burying the capacity discrepancy deeper in its reporting. Both outlets confirmed the core facts: 2.51GW approved, nine-day clearance, no public hearing, Adani partnership, and active legal challenges.
The open question isn't whether India wants datacentres — its own Economic Survey notes the country generates nearly 20% of the world's data but hosts only 3% of global datacentres. The question is why American energy policy makes it easier for Google to build a nuclear-reactor-scale power draw in a foreign village than in Ohio.
