Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi recently took to X to announce the ride-hailing platform’s partnership with the Adani group to build its first-ever data centre. While the investment value was not disclosed, it has been confirmed that the new data centre will be located in Ahmedabad.
“As India fast emerges as a leading innovation hub for Uber, we are setting up our first data centre 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,” he said.
The move comes amid increased investment in data centres. With an estimated $15 billion in capital, Google officially broke ground for its new facility in Visakhapatnam on April 28, 2026.
Amazon recently announced an additional $7 billion to expand its existing centres in Mumbai and Hyderabad. Microsoft, too, unveiled plans to invest $17.5 billion from 2026 to 2029, including new data centre projects.
However, most data centres in India rely on evaporative cooling systems, which use water evaporation to absorb heat. While the system is efficient in terms of power consumption and cost, a typical 1-megawatt system consumes roughly 25-26 million litres of water annually for cooling. Higher temperatures in India further increase this demand, as per peer-reviewed studies.
Water levels have been reported to be dropping in several cities where data centres are operational or being planned. In Mumbai, declining water levels in the seven lakes supplying the city—Upper Vaitarna, Modak Sagar, Tansa, Middle Vaitarna, Bhatsa, Vehar, and Tulsi—led the Brihanmumbai Municipal Commission to impose a 10 per cent water ban from May 15, 2026, as per ground reports. The total volume of water in the lakes has reached 34,000 crore litres, which is just 23 per cent of the capacity of the lakes.
In Hyderabad, where Amazon established its second centre in 2022, groundwater levels reportedly dropped from 1.99 metre in January 2026 to 2.97 metre in April 2026. Residents from areas such as Gachibowli, Kondapur, Nanakramguda, Nallagandla and Tellapu have been relying on water tankers to book 1-1.5 litre of water every 1-2 days to meet their basic needs.
Vishakhapatanam, where Google’s new facility is coming up, has been witnessing sharp declines in groundwater levels, with areas like Yendanda falling from 19.62 metre in April 2025 to 28.71 metre in April 2026. Similar declines of 0.61 to 9.14 metre are observed in other areas of the city as well. Studies indicate that Ahmedabad—set to host Uber’s new centre—has also observed declining groundwater levels at a rate of 2 to 4 metres per year.
With 34.2 crore people in India lacking access to safe water, alternative methods to evaporative cooling systems can be explored to ensure development and investments that do not compromise crucial natural resources.