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India, US to ramp up trade in GPUs and data centre infrastructure

Interim trade framework to ease import norms for ICT goods, support India's push to become a major AI data centre hub

India’s data centre industry reached a major milestone in October when Google announced plans to set up a 1 gigawatt AI data centre in Visakhapatnam, investing $15 billion over the next five years

Representative image from file.

2 min read Last Updated : Feb 08 2026 | 10:36 PM IST

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India and the US will significantly increase trade in technology products, including Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) and other goods used in data centres, the two countries announced on Saturday.

Both countries will also work to expand joint technology cooperation as part of the framework for an Interim Agreement on reciprocal and mutually beneficial trade, they said in a joint statement.

As a part of the interim arrangement for the trade agreement, India has also agreed to eliminate restrictive import licensing procedures that delay market access for, or impose quantitative restrictions on, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) goods of the US, the White House said in a statement.

“For the purposes of enhancing ease of compliance with applicable technical regulations, the United States and India intend to discuss their respective standards and conformity assessment procedures for mutually agreed sectors,” the Donald Trump administration said in the statement.

The inclusion of GPUs and data centre infrastructure in the interim framework for the trade agreement comes at an opportune time for India, as the country prepares to become a major data centre hub, especially for AI companies. Towards this goal, the Union government has announced a tax break of up to 2047 for foreign companies setting up new data centres in India in the Union Budget for 2026-27.

“Until now, high import duties of 20–28% on enterprise GPU servers have significantly eroded India’s global competitiveness, making GPU-as-a-Service pricing nearly 40 per cent higher than peer hubs such as Singapore and the UAE. Any move towards duty rationalisation can reduce the cost of setting up GPU-ready data centres by approximately 14%, unlocking large-scale investments in AI infrastructure across the country,” industry body Bharat Digital Infrastructure Association said.