Meta is reportedly looking to partner with Sify Technologies on a 500MW data center in the state of Andhra Pradesh, India.

As reported by India's Economic Times and citing a person familiar with the matter, Sify will develop the data center and then lease the capacity to Meta.

According to ET, Sify will invest some RS 15,266 crore ($1.7bn) in the data center that will be located in Paradesipslem village, around 25km from Visakhapatnam (aka Vizag).

Neither Meta nor Sify responded to ET's requests for comment.

In addition to leasing data center space from Sify, Meta will land its Waterworth subsea cable at Sify's landing station in the region. Sify broke ground on the landing station facility and adjacent 50MW data center last month.

Meta was reportedly considering an India data center location in March 2024, with the social media company later said to be looking to lease space at a Digital Connexion site in Chennai.

Earlier this month, Meta claimed it would spend $600 billion on digital infrastructure in the US alone over the next three years.

Andhra Pradesh is seeing increasing data center activity. In October, Google confirmed it was working on a $15bn data center project in the state, and earlier this month, Anant Raj Cloud Private Limited (ARCPL) signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the State of Andhra Pradesh for a $507m data center project.

Sify Technologies operates data centers across India. The company announced at the start of this year that it would invest $5bn to expand its data center business. Since then, it has launched the first phase of a 130MW data center campus outside Chennai and broken ground on a facility in Lucknow. In August, it was said to be planning an IPO in India.