Andhra Pradesh Minister for IT and Education Nara Lokesh has held several high level meetings in the United States as part of his efforts to draw major foreign investment to the state. His visit included discussions with top executives from Google, Adobe, Nvidia, and Intel.
In San Francisco, he met Google CEO Sundar Pichai to review the progress of the company’s planned fifteen billion dollar artificial intelligence data center in Visakhapatnam. Lokesh thanked the Google leadership for the major investment, which Pichai described as the largest foreign direct investment the company has made outside the United States. Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian also joined the meeting. Lokesh requested that Google consider setting up a drone assembly and testing unit in the upcoming Drone City in Andhra Pradesh. Pichai assured him that the proposals would be taken up internally.
Lokesh also met Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen and encouraged him to explore setting up a Global Capability Center or development facility in Visakhapatnam. He also highlighted the potential for investments from companies where Narayen serves on the board. Lokesh suggested a Pfizer manufacturing plant in the pharma zone in Visakhapatnam and opportunities for KKR in the state’s healthcare sector. Narayen responded positively and said he would discuss the proposals with his colleagues.
In Santa Clara, Lokesh met Raj Mirpuri, Nvidia’s Vice President of Enterprise and Cloud Sales. He requested support for developing artificial intelligence skills in the state and proposed a pilot project for a Smart Factory using Nvidia technology. He also encouraged Nvidia to guide its manufacturing partners towards investments in Andhra Pradesh and to link local deep tech startups with its India focused fund.
At Intel headquarters, Lokesh met IT CTO Sesha Krishnapura and proposed the creation of an Assembly, Testing, Marking and Packaging unit in the state. He pointed to the strong ecosystem in the Visakhapatnam Chennai Industrial Corridor and also suggested forming an Intel Amaravati AI Research Center in association with a leading local institution.
Corporate leaders at all meetings acknowledged the proposals and agreed to review them internally. The visit marked a major step in positioning Andhra Pradesh as a growing centre for global technology and manufacturing.
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