Adani Enterprises Reveals ₹30,000 Crore Estimated Cost for Google-Linked AI Data Centre Project

Adani Enterprises Ltd (AEL) has, for the first time, disclosed financial details of its proposed 1-gigawatt (GW) artificial intelligence (AI) data centre hub in Visakhapatnam, nearly a year after announcing the project in partnership with Google. During the company's first-quarter earnings call on July 29, Adani Group Chief Financial Officer Jugeshinder "Robbie" Singh outlined the funding strategy for AdaniConneX—the joint venture between Adani Group and global data centre operator EdgeConneX. He explained how the venture intends to finance its committed capacity and whether customers are expected to provide advances or prepayments. Singh also shared an indicative estimate of the construction cost. We are roughly around Rs 70 crore to Rs 75 crore per megawatt in terms of construction, Singh said, adding that the business is targeting an annual dollar-equivalent return on investment of about 12%. Based on the upper end of the management's estimate—Rs 75 crore per MW—the 400 MW Visakhapatnam capacity announced by AdaniConneX, which Singh confirmed is part of Google's AI project, translates into an estimated construction cost of approximately Rs 30,000 crore. The estimate is derived from management's per-megawatt cost guidance and should not be interpreted as the company's official projection for the project's total investment. Singh also clarified that the graphics processing units (GPUs), among the most expensive components of AI infrastructure, will be supplied by the end customer. As a result, the construction cost estimate excludes GPU-related expenditure.