Facebook parent Meta has teamed up with Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries to establish what Meta described as its first AI-enabled data centre in India.

Announced on June 9, the deal will see Reliance build a 168-megawatt facility in Jamnagar, Gujarat, with Meta leasing the space and retaining an option to scale up later.

The data centre will run on renewable energy and use desalinated seawater for cooling, with Meta paying for all power and water used. It forms part of a much larger campus Reliance is developing in the region.

The collaboration builds on an existing relationship. According to a Reuters report on the matter, in 2020, Meta invested $5.7 billion in Jio Platforms, a Reliance entity. In August last year, the two companies formed a joint venture to create AI platforms and tools for Indian enterprises using Meta's Llama models. That venture was launched with a combined initial investment of 8.55 billion rupees ($89.67 million), split 70% to Reliance and 30% to Meta, states Reuters.

Meta also announced separate clean energy agreements with India-based energy companies CleanMax and Fourth Partner Energy, securing close to one gigawatt of new solar and wind capacity to support its growing operations in India.