Uber is building a brand-new data center, and the winning headquarters where this site is to be constructed is… India! Here’s the story.
With Adani Group
Well, right now, all things remain plans, but the CEO of Uber has already officially met with Gautam Adani, the founder and the chairman of Adani Group, in Ahmedabad.
Khosrowshahi posted online, “As India fast emerges as a leading innovation hub for Uber, we are setting up our first data center in the country with the Adani Group to test and deploy our tech. Ready later this year, this investment will help us build at scale - from India, for the world.”
So far, the details state that Uber and Adani Group might be head-on to build a brand-new data center from scratch, or Uber will lease an existing data center and improve it.
Adani Group isn’t your typical business. It is among the largest multinational conglomerates in India, headquartered in Ahmedabad. It is founded by Adani, a billionaire, in 1988 to serve as a commodity trading business, but has evolved to serve various key sectors.
This company comprises over a dozen publicly-traded companies that operate across the globe. The key sectors are:
- Ports and logistics
- Energy and utilities
- Renewable energy
- Airports
- Defense
- Aerospace
- Mining
- Data centers
- Cement
- Real estate
- Media
Goooal!
Data centers are crucial for any business as they are the critical physical infrastructure that drives the global digital economy. They function as the central nervous system of the operations.
Many nations around the world are pushing for better digital sovereignty, guaranteeing that data remain within the boundaries of the country.
This news is a surprise for Uber. Previously, the company housed about 95 percent of its IT in its own data centers, such as the one in Colorado, which it purchased from Microsoft in 2015, but since it signed deals with Google and Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Uber has been set to close its data centers.
If this Uber data center in India is seen, the ridesharing app can have greater control over its consumers’ data, and there is a site where processing takes place.
There are no details yet on the data center’s size, capacity, or location.
However, Uber is making a soccer goal here, since a massive data center build-out is part of Adani Group’s agenda. In February, it revealed it is spending some whopping $100 billion on renewable-powered AI data center by 2035, part of market forecasts.
This would include a gigawatt-scale data center campus with Google in Visakhapatnam, alongside additional campuses in Noida, as well as with Microsoft spanning Hyderabad and Pune. So, India is really the center here.
Adani Group also has a joint venture with EdgeConneX, and AdaniConneX, which operates data centers across the South Asian nation. Its funds are enough to implement these plans. That’s the Uber story now on Ridesharing Forum. Have a good day ahead!