AirTrunk Signs Andhra Pradesh MoU for $11B, Up to 1.8 GW Campuses

Deccan Chronicle reported that AirTrunk India-JCK Infra signed the MoU with the state's IT department at the 31st CII Partnership Summit in Visakhapatnam, with Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu overseeing the signing. The paper described the project as data center campuses and telecom infrastructure with a capacity of 1,400 MW, an investment of ₹1,03,018 crore and 3,120 expected jobs. Business Today, citing an emailed AirTrunk statement, said the company has submitted a detailed project report to the state for two hyperscale campuses with combined capacity of up to 1.8 GW, and that the proposal is under consideration by state authorities.

The two outlets do not give the same capacity. Deccan Chronicle's 1,400 MW is the figure for the agreement it describes, while Business Today's 1.8 GW is AirTrunk's own figure for two campuses. Neither says whether the megawatts are critical IT load or utility supply, and neither names a power source, a grid connection date or a construction schedule. For the state's power system, this is a proposal and not a connected load.

Power and Water Plans Behind the Campuses

Business Today said Naidu stated this week that the state is expanding renewable energy capacity and strengthening water supply to support large data center developments. AirTrunk said the campuses would use low-water, air-cooled technology and industrial water supplies rather than municipal sources. Neither report ties a specific generation project or substation to the AirTrunk sites.

Business Today also noted that Alphabet's Google is separately developing a $15 billion AI hub in Andhra Pradesh. The report gives no capacity for the Google project, so the two cannot be compared in megawatts. ETV Bharat listed AirTrunk-JCK Infra among the signatories of the summit, where 109 agreements worth ₹9,02,484 crore were signed.

How It Fits AirTrunk's Wider Plans

AirTrunk's media centre lists a June 5 release headlined "Blackstone-backed AirTrunk plans to invest US$30bn and +5GW in India", a plan larger than this proposal in both money and capacity. Voltgrid News reported separately on AirTrunk's exclusivity deal for Hunter Valley renewables to serve its Kurri Kurri campus in Australia, where no power purchase agreement has been signed yet.

What is not confirmed yet

AirTrunk's media centre, as read on Nov. 14, listed no release on the Andhra Pradesh MoU, and the state government's own release was not available to Voltgrid. The investment is subject to necessary approvals, regulatory clearances and infrastructure readiness, according to Business Today. The split of the 1.8 GW between the two sites, the power source and the build schedule are not given in the reports Voltgrid read. ETV Bharat reported that the state plans to monitor how far the summit's agreements are implemented and to publish its findings every year.