Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said the state's Data Centre Cluster project is designed to position UP as the largest artificial intelligence compute power hub in India and the Global South, with Bundelkhand identified as a potential starting point given the availability of large tracts of land in the Bundelkhand Industrial Development Authority area.
Adityanath said his goal is to develop UP into a global centre for AI, data infrastructure, cloud services and high-tech digital manufacturing.
He also called for outreach to major technology companies, including the Tata Group, to build Lucknow into an AI City.
The UP government had earlier this year announced plans for eight data centre parks across the state, projected to draw roughly Rs 2 lakh crore in investment and create over 50,000 direct jobs.
Reviewing the Uttar Pradesh Data Centre Cluster project, the Chief Minister stressed that its benefits should not be confined to the NCR belt.
"The Data Centre Cluster should not remain limited to the NCR region and other parts of the State should also be connected with it," Adityanath said.
The initiative is part of a broader ambition to build UP into a five-trillion-dollar economy, generate more than 1.5 lakh direct jobs and establish a 5-gigawatt AI compute corridor by 2040.
The CM noted that global markets for emerging sectors such as AI, cloud, cybersecurity, semiconductors, electric vehicles, robotics and space technology could collectively reach between 29 and 48 trillion dollars.
The Chief Minister described UP as Asia's most secure, scalable and connected inland AI territory, noting that nearly all major national fibre networks pass through the state and that intra-state connectivity of under five milliseconds is available.
On the talent front, he pointed to IIT Kanpur, NIT Prayagraj and over 50 engineering institutions as anchors of the state's technical workforce.