Lokesh Pitches AP as Global Hub for Semiconductors and AI

Vijayawada: Minister for IT and education Nara Lokesh intensified Andhra Pradesh’s push for global technology investments on Day 4 of his US tour, holding a series of high-level meetings with top executives of Google, Intel, NVIDIA, Adobe and Zoom.

Talks focused on semiconductors, artificial intelligence, advanced manufacturing, R&D, skill development and digital public services.

Lokesh met Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian and senior executives to review progress on the proposed $15-billion AI data centre in Visakhapatnam billed as Google’s largest overseas investment. He sought clarity on timelines and urged Google to enable a data centre–server manufacturing ecosystem through contract partners, along with exploring drone assembly and testing in the proposed Drone City.

In discussions with Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, Lokesh proposed a Global Capability Centre or development centre in Visakhapatnam and sought collaboration in digital health, pharma R&D and manufacturing, leveraging the Andhra MedTech Zone and state pharma clusters.

He invited Zoom President Velchamy Sankarlingam and COO Aparna Bawa to establish an R&D/engineering centre in Amaravati or Visakhapatnam and sought support for virtual classrooms linking urban teachers with rural students, and telemedicine networks between village clinics and district hospitals.

At Intel’s Santa Clara headquarters, Lokesh highlighted the state’s favourable ecosystem for semiconductor and electronics manufacturing along the Visakhapatnam–Chennai Industrial Corridor, and invited Intel to set up an ATMP (Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging) unit. He also proposed an Intel–Amaravati AI Research Centre with IIIT Sri City or IIT Tirupati and dedicated high-performance computing clusters.

With NVIDIA vice-president Raj Mirpuri, he discussed collaboration on AI skilling, smart manufacturing and startup funding. Lokesh proposed a smart-factory pilot in the state using Omniverse and Isaac Sim platforms and sought links to NVIDIA’s deep-tech investor network. Mirpuri said the proposals would be reviewed internally.