Blackstone's AirTrunk Signs MoU for 1.8GW of Data Centres in India's Andhra Pradesh

The agreement was signed on November 13 at the 31st CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam, in the presence of Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. According to AirTrunk, the plan covers a 400MW campus at Rambilli and a 1,400MW campus at Tootipala, both in Anakapalli district outside the port city, and could support more than 3,100 direct operational jobs and 4,700 indirect ones.

The proposal dominated the summit's second day. The state recorded commitments of ₹1,41,585 crore across 12 agreements that day, according to the Deccan Chronicle, and the AirTrunk MoU, listed under AirTrunk India-JCK Infra and signed with the state's IT department, accounted for ₹1,03,018 crore of that total, or about 73%. Bloomberg valued the India plan at $11 billion.

The figures published by the state and by the company do not line up exactly. The newspaper's tally described the AirTrunk project as 1,400MW of data centre campuses and telecom infrastructure creating 3,120 jobs, numbers that match the larger Tootipala site rather than the 1.8GW total AirTrunk gave. AirTrunk's own announcement did not state an investment amount.

For Andhra Pradesh, the agreement adds a large name to a campaign to turn Visakhapatnam into a data centre hub. Google, Reliance and Digital Connexion have all announced data centre plans in the state, the last two for campuses of 1GW each. Naidu told investors at the summit that his priority was getting projects built quickly rather than simply signing agreements, the Deccan Chronicle reported.

For AirTrunk, the deal is a step into one of the fastest-growing data centre markets outside the US and China. The company already says it is developing hyperscale data centres in India. It was founded in 2015 by Robin Khuda and builds and runs large campuses for cloud and AI customers. Blackstone, together with partner capital, bought the company in a deal valued at more than A$24 billion. Khuda met Naidu earlier this year to discuss a campus in Visakhapatnam, the chief minister said in a post on X at the time.

AirTrunk said it planned to hire locally and to work with Industrial Training Institutes and polytechnics in Anakapalli on skills training. "Digital infrastructure can support economic growth and create new opportunities for local communities," said Carly Wishart, AirTrunk's managing director for corporate and international. "Our focus is on responsible planning and helping people build the skills to take part in the opportunities ahead."

The company described the proposal as still in progress and said it would work with government and community partners as it advanced. No construction schedule has been published for either site, and the memorandum still has to be turned into approved projects at Rambilli and Tootipala before building can begin.