Broken promises, confiscated land: the hyperscale AI datacentre being built in a tiny Indian village

Locals say Google’s $15bn project in Andhra Pradesh has resulted in smallholdings being taken back off them by the government

When the government officials arrived in Tarluvada last year, they came with abundant promises.

Google, one of the world’s richest and most powerful tech companies, would soon be bringing a “golden opportunity” to this tiny village in south India: a $15bn AI datacentre.

The project, being built in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is set to be Google’s largest “hyperscale” AI datacentre outside the US and would, officials said, make the village of Tarluvada into a world-famous tech hub. Jobs, usually scarce in this impoverished community, would become bountiful, real estate prices would soar and compensation for any land would be generous.

Few in the village – which sits on a dusty unpaved road and is surrounded by farms and forest – had even heard of AI or knew what a datacentre was. Yet it did not take long for local jubilation over Google’s arrival to turn to suspicion.