Google pulls $1 billion data center in US: Public protest forces U-turn; India sees $25 billion push

Google has canceled its data center plan worth $1 billion in Indianapolis after strong protests from local residents. The protests took place as people were worried about high power and water use. On the other hand, India is growing its data center industry fast. It aims to attract $25 billion in investment by 2030, with cities like Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad leading the growth.

Google has shared its plan to build a $1 billion AI data center in Franklin Township, near Indianapolis, in the United States. The came minutes before a city council vote that was expected to reject the project. Local people had raised concerns about the project’s impact on water supply and electricity use. They feared it would raise utility bills and stress local infrastructure. The protest group, 'Protect Franklin Township,' led the campaign. Although Indianapolis is already a major location for data centers, the growing pushback shows that many communities in the US are worried about the environmental costs of large tech projects.

While data center plans face problems in the US, India is growing in this area. A report by Colliers, a global real estate firm, shows that India’s total data center capacity reached 1,263 megawatts (MW) in April 2025. This is more than four times higher than six years ago. India is expected to attract $20–25 billion in data center investment by 2030. The demand is being driven by fast internet growth, digital services, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. Mumbai holds the largest share of the market, followed by Chennai and Delhi NCR. The total floor space of data centers in the top seven Indian cities has reached 16 million square feet.

The data centers support everything from video streaming to cloud storage. However, they use a lot of electricity and water to do so. In the US, data centers used about 176 terawatt-hours of electricity in 2023, which is around 4.4% of the country’s total power use. Carbon emissions reached 105 million metric tons. Experts say that as India adds more data centers, it must focus on clean energy and water-saving methods to avoid environmental damage.

Despite canceling its US project, Google has announced a new data center in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. With a planned capacity of 1 gigawatt, it will be India’s biggest data center yet. The Andhra Pradesh government said Vizag is ideal because of its access to ports, green energy, and coastal power grids. But some experts are worried.

Former IAS officer EAS Sarma said the water needs of the new center could hurt local supply. Government papers say each of the three campuses planned by Google will need up to 5,000 cubic meters of water every day. Even with these concerns, states like Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are pushing to become leaders in data infrastructure.