Andhra CM Bats For Google’s Chip Centre At Vizag

Andhra Pradesh’s chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu has reportedly urged Alphabet-owned Google to consider Visakhapatnam for its manufacturing unit and designing chips.

Naidu proposed Visakhapatnam as an ideal location for the tech giant to set up its chip design centre, while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, PTI reported.

Inc42 has reached out to Google for comments on the development. The story will be updated based on the response.

“Naidu requested Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian to explore opportunities in Visakhapatnam for a chip design centre, as Google is now manufacturing its chips for server operations,” the report quoted an official statement as saying.

The report further added that Kurian was also requested to establish a chip manufacturing unit in the state, integrating it into the Google Cloud server supply chain, and Naidu expressed his desire for Andhra to become a hub for Google’s server operations.

Naidu also took the update to X saying, “Had an engaging discussion with Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, and Andre Nakazaw, manager of International Organization at Google. We explored the latest advancements in technology and the incredible opportunities in Andhra Pradesh. With our exceptionally talented youth, we’re poised to redefine the future of tech!”

This development comes at a time when Google has been expanding its base in India by working to establish its base in Tamil Nadu.

Earlier in May last year, the Sundar Pichai-led company was said to be working on manufacturing drones at a unit in Tamil Nadu, through its subsidiary Wing LLC, to capitalise on the liberalised drone policies.

Months after that, the Tamil Nadu government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with tech giant Google to set up ‘Tamil Nadu AI Labs’ in Chennai.

Furthermore, Gemini owner also inked a pact with the Tamil Nadu government to explore manufacturing of its ‘Made in India’ Pixel 8 smartphones, skill development and build an industrial ecosystem, enabling MSMEs to create scalable AI solutions, in September 2024.

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