Vijayawada: Andhra Pradesh will emerge as a reliable global partner in the future nuclear economy, IT and HRD minister Nara Lokesh said on Monday, adding that the state is well-positioned to play a major role in the evolving global nuclear energy ecosystem through industrial infrastructure, logistics capabilities, and technological advancement.
Speaking at the 'US Executive Nuclear Mission to India' conference in New Delhi, which was jointly organised by the Nuclear Energy Institute and the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum, Lokesh said advanced nuclear technologies such as small modular reactors and next-generation reactor systems offer immense opportunities in modular manufacturing, scalable deployment, and distributed supply chains.
India possesses engineering talent, manufacturing scale and cost competitiveness, while states like Andhra Pradesh provide ports, industrial corridors, infrastructure, and execution capability. Andhra Pradesh enjoys several natural advantages including a long coastline, strong port infrastructure, industrial corridors, power infrastructure and a rapidly expanding technology ecosystem. The state government is implementing the 'speed of doing business' initiatives to accelerate industrial growth and project execution.
Reiterating that energy security has become one of the most important priorities for the state government as countries across the world simultaneously pursue economic growth, industrial expansion, digital transformation, and decarbonisation, Lokesh said the challenge before nations today is how to power the AI era while meeting climate commitments and ensuring affordable and reliable energy supply. AP is emerging as a major industrial and digital transformation hub in India. We are building new industrial corridors, expanding electronics manufacturing and investing heavily in renewable energy. Visakhapatnam is being developed as a major AI and data centre hub, with around 6 gigawatts of data centre capacity expected in the port city. The state is creating the infrastructure backbone required for future industries, which will require massive quantities of reliable power.
Seasonal renewable energy alone would not be sufficient to meet future industrial demand, Lokesh asserted, and stressed on the need for affordable, pollution-free, round-the-clock power supply. AP has adopted a long-term integrated clean energy strategy and aims to attract nearly ₹10 lakh crore in investments across renewable energy, energy storage, green hydrogen, transmission infrastructure, manufacturing ecosystems and grid modernisation.
Highlighting the growing electricity demand driven by AI, data centres, and semiconductor industries, Lokesh said a single hyperscale AI-native data centre could consume as much electricity as a medium-sized town. AP is already witnessing this transformation as global companies are coming forward to establish gigawatt-scale AI-native data centres in Visakhapatnam.
