According to reports from The Times of India, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang emphasized the significant employment opportunities created by data centre construction. Speaking about India's data centre expansion, Huang highlighted that the actual building of a data centre employs 5,000 to 10,000 people including electricians, plumbers, and construction workers. The supply chain encompasses design, concrete, architecture, and management roles, creating substantial workforce requirements for building and operating data centres.
As reported by The Times of India, Huang explained that the employment impact extends beyond direct construction to include upstream and downstream activities. The electrical plant may not create many jobs directly, but the upstream and downstream implications of having enabling infrastructure are incredible. He drew parallels to the internet industry, noting that the amount of jobs created upstream and downstream has been incredible, and AI will do exactly the same thing.
According to The Times of India reports, Huang advocated for Indian companies to build their own data centres rather than just welcoming foreign data centre companies. He stated that India should not only welcome data centre companies to India, but also build data centres in India by Indian companies. This approach would create additional employment opportunities and contribute to India's technological infrastructure development.
As reported by The Times of India, Huang emphasized the long-term potential of data centre infrastructure for startup companies. After data centres are built, startup companies can be built on top of that infrastructure, creating a sustainable ecosystem of technology and innovation. This approach would leverage India's data centre investments to foster local innovation and entrepreneurship in the technology sector.
According to The Times of India, the government has provided significant support for data centre development through Budget 2026. FM Nirmala Sitharaman had proposed to provide a tax holiday till 2047 to any foreign company providing cloud services to customers globally by using data centre services from India. The arrangement ensures that Indian data centres can offer their services to global entities without global entities having any risk of being entangled with Indian taxation. Revenue Secretary Arvind Shrivastava noted that the certainty enables businesses to look at Indian data centres purely from a commercial perspective, with tax not becoming a deterrent.
