Zuckerberg gets his Indian data centre. Ambani gets the world’s most valuable tech tenant. And India gets something it has been waiting years to claim.
Mark Zuckerberg and Mukesh Ambani announced on June 10, 2026, in Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, a major data centre partnership agreement between Reliance Industries and Meta. Reliance will build and lease back to Meta a 168MW AI-enabled data centre designed by Reliance for leasing; Meta will lease back. It marks Reliance Industries’ first built-to-suit facility in India and fulfils Mark Zuckerberg’s stated goal of providing personal superintelligence to one of the world’s fastest-growing user bases.
Within hours of Reliance’s announcement, its shares surged by 2.46% to Rs1,300.5 on the NSE. The market read the room accurately.
What Is Actually Being Built
The numbers first, because they matter. Reliance will build a 168 MW data centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Meta will lease it, with options to scale. Delivery is expected within two years, putting the facility online sometime in 2028. Power will come from renewable energy sources. Cooling will use desalinated seawater, a practical choice for a coastal industrial city that already runs some of the world’s largest refinery operations.
The location is not accidental. Jamnagar sits on India’s western coastline and gives Meta direct access to Jio’s extensive fibre network and India’s western submarine cable landing stations. Those cables are the physical arteries that connect India to the rest of the internet. A data centre plugged into them is not just serving India; it is positioned to serve a significant part of Asia.
“We’re proud to be working with Reliance to build our first AI-enabled data centre in India,”
“This world-class facility in Jamnagar will help us scale our AI infrastructure globally while deepening our long-term investment in India’s economy.”
Why This Deal Is Bigger Than It Looks
168 MW sounds like a technical specification. It is also a statement of intent. India has roughly 1.4 billion people. Meta’s platforms, Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, are woven into daily life for hundreds of millions of people. WhatsApp alone processes more messages in India than almost anywhere else on earth. Running AI at the scale Zuckerberg is describing, personal superintelligence, AI agents, real-time translation, and health tools requires computing located close to the people using it. Latency is not just a performance issue. It is a product issue.
Until now, Meta served its Indian users largely from data centres outside the country. This deal changes that.
Ambani understood the weight of the moment.
“This partnership with Meta marks a transformative moment for India’s digital infrastructure.”
He said in a statement.
“Building India’s first built-to-suit data centre for a global technology leader of Meta’s scale demonstrates India’s readiness to be at the forefront of the global AI revolution.”
He went further.
“Jamnagar will become a landmark destination for hyperscale AI computing not just for India, but for the world.”
That last line is the one worth watching.
The Clean Energy Commitment is Larger Than the Data Centre
The data centre is the headline. The energy announcement is the substance. Alongside the Reliance deal, Meta announced it has contracted nearly 1 gigawatt of new clean and renewable energy in India through two separate agreements.
CleanMax will deliver 837 MW of new solar and wind projects across Rajasthan and Karnataka. That brings Meta’s cumulative capacity announced with CleanMax to over 900 MW, almost a full gigawatt from a single supplier. Fourth Partner Energy adds another 88 MW of solar and wind projects across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Uttar Pradesh.
Combined with the renewable energy Reliance is providing for the Jamnagar facility, Meta’s total clean energy commitment in India has crossed a level that puts it among the largest single-company renewable energy buyers in the country.
This is not greenwashing. Running AI at scale requires enormous power. Sourcing that power from renewables and building the contracts to guarantee it is the kind of infrastructure decision that takes years to execute. The fact that Meta is doing it now, at this scale, signals how seriously the company is taking its Indian AI buildout.
Where This Fits in Reliance’s Larger Play
This deal did not arrive in isolation. Reliance has been building toward a moment like this for years.
Earlier in 2026, Mukesh Ambani unveiled a ₹10 trillion, roughly $110 billion, plan to build AI computing infrastructure across India over the next seven years. Gigawatt-scale data centres in Jamnagar, a nationwide edge computing network, and AI services layered into Jio’s telecom platform. More than 120 MW of capacity was already expected to come online in the second half of 2026, even before the Meta deal was announced.
“The biggest constraint in AI today is not talent or imagination,”
Ambani said at the India AI Impact Summit earlier this year.
“It is the scarcity and high cost of computing.”
The Meta lease solves two problems at once. It gives Reliance an anchor tenant, one of the world’s five most valuable companies, for a facility that would otherwise need years to fill. And it gives Reliance’s infrastructure ambitions immediate global credibility.
Reliance Enterprise Intelligence Limited REIL the joint venture formed with Facebook Overseas Inc. in 2025, adds another layer to this. Meta holds 30%, Reliance holds 70%. The JV is focused on enterprise AI services across sales, marketing, IT operations, customer service, and finance. The data centre provides the compute layer underneath all of it.
What It Means for India’s AI Race
India is in a race it did not fully anticipate and is now sprinting to lead.
The Indian government expects more than $200 billion in AI infrastructure spending over the next two years. Adani Group announced plans to invest roughly $100 billion in AI data centres. OpenAI is partnering with the Tata Group on 100 MW of AI capacity, with plans to scale to 1 GW. And now Meta and Reliance have locked in 168 MW in Jamnagar with scaling options attached.
The pattern is consistent. Every major global tech company building AI infrastructure is putting India on the map, and India’s largest industrial families are positioning themselves as the landlords.
For context: India’s total current data centre capacity sits at under 1 GW. The announced investment pipeline would multiply that several times over within this decade.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: What did Meta and Reliance announce on June 10, 2026?
Meta and Reliance Industries today announced a partnership to establish an AI-enabled data centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Meta will lease this facility, its inaugural built-to-suit data centre in India, which Reliance will construct within two years, with options to scale over time.
Q: Where is Meta’s India data centre being built?
Meta’s facility will be constructed in Jamnagar, Gujarat – on India’s western coast – providing easy access to Jio’s fibre network as well as India’s western submarine cable landing stations.
Q: How much renewable energy is Meta committing to in India?
Meta has recently signed contracts for nearly 1 GW of clean energy projects across India: 837MW through CleanMax across Rajasthan and Karnataka, and 88MW via Fourth Partner Energy across Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh. Reliance will additionally supply renewable power at their Jamnagar facility.
What is Reliance Enterprise Intelligence Limited (REIL)?
REIL is a joint venture formed by Reliance Industries and Facebook Overseas Inc., a Meta subsidiary. Reliance holds 70%, Meta holds 30%. The JV is focused on building and distributing enterprise AI services using Meta’s Llama models across Indian industries.
Q: Why did Meta choose Jamnagar for its India data centre?
Jamnagar offers access to Jio’s fibre network, India’s western submarine cable stations, renewable energy capacity and desalinated seawater cooling – as well as Reliance’s existing industrial infrastructure, where one of the world’s largest refinery complexes already resides.
Q: How does this deal fit into Reliance’s broader AI strategy?
Reliance has committed ₹10 trillion or $110 billion to AI computing infrastructure in India over seven years. The Meta deal gives Reliance an anchor tenant for its Jamnagar data centre and adds global credibility to an infrastructure buildout that was already underway.
