To wonder why Google is setting up a HUGE AI center in India and not in the UK?

Why would google put it in the UK? It’s not even a UK business.

The term FAANGS has not been used in serious investment circles for about 2 years. Some influencers might not be up to date.
As others are pointing out some of your data is a bit awry as well.
Maybe Copilot would have helped you.

In the school my kids do to, we have seen a drip drip of Indian professionals leave each year. Almost all of them IT. One couple was IT and IT and pharmaceuticals. I asked 3 why they were living. For 2 it was the visa palaver combined with better supported life at home. The other couldn't actually get their company to sponsor their visa extension. So not a statistically valid sample but just saying. My other Indian friends and colleagues say their highly educated family members don't dream of leaving India and there is a steady stream of returns.
Having said that we also have at the same school a steady stream of Indian and African careworkers.
So some out, others in.
But Indian is definitely increasingly attractive to invest in. And not just call centers as some people think

They pay salaries "competitive for the local market". So potentially in Hyderabad or Bangalore, where a lot of US tech companies have offices, local cost of living and wage landscape will mean higher wages. Elsewhere in India, with less competition for talent, not so much.

It will be money.

Monthly salary is only one part of costs. Even if they are paying staff the same or higher salary than comparable jobs in the UK, overall costs for the company will be lower.

Lower costs in India.

Unfortunately, that part is true. The USA are keen to work in countries with labor laws similar to their own. We had recent redundancies at work - 90 days consultation and then 3 months notice and generous packages for the UK staff. The USA staff - left the same day they were told they'd been laid off, key cards cancelled, laptops taken. Then 'generously' given a months salary and healthcare covered for 3 months.
My US colleagues work as if they might be fired at any moment ( which is true) - working out of hours, checking email everyday on vacation, not taking their full 2 weeks vacation, back from giving birth within 3 months...

Right!

It’s cheaper.

It’s that simple.

They really are. There's a foundation in the UK that was set up by computer boffins at Cambridge Uni making a super cheap, programmable computer to encourage kids and young people to code because Computing Science undergrads were arriving at Uni woefully underskilled to do their courses.

Let me tell you, underskilled is not a word anyone ever uses about India's young, talented, huge workforce when it comes to IT, tech, programming. They are so well qualified, partly because there's huge competition within that industry there.

If British people want a huge AI data center, with its pros and cons, maybe we should be promoting UK businesses in the area, not importing in an American company to claim more of British assets? I mean, the OP blame high taxes for illegal migration, but have you seen the tax relief and money going to foreign companies of many stripes buying up British assets, raising the prices for everyone here? That's far more of a concern to me than google picking India for this.

As for why would a US company prefer the UK over India for a resource heavy industry - it's outsourcing for them either way, and either way they'll have to deal with the US GILTI and the rest of the corporate tax system for businesses by Americans outside of the US.

Higher tax while is an issue really isn't the main issue and neither is how that tax is spent. As a US company, they're already dealing with a mess in needing to deal with US system and how it handles businesses abroad. As others said, if they're going to leave the US which has weaker labour laws than the UK, then one with even weaker ones has ones for companies like google notorious for their poor practices. I don't want a race to the bottom on that.

I also have quite a few concerns on how they would use the land and other resources they need for an AI centre of that size. We already have enough water issues in many parts of the UK without adding in an additional significant drain to the area for something that has questionable benefits - yes, it'll provide tech jobs, but as is well known with google, what those employees make, the assets they make, end up belonging to google.

What a bizarre post.

Ha salaries are way lower in india. Ive got a staff there & they are on much less than uk equivalent

Also american tech companies like to hire people in markets with weak labour laws so they can maintain long hours culture, hire & fire at will etc.

Even as a brown person I can tell @frozendaisy is being sarcastic!

Daft question. The answer is no doubt the same reason that many companies have their call centres, IT stuff etc there - English speaking, lower wages, lower overheads, keen employees, etc etc.

Google can do what it likes where it likes, the UK isn't owed anything

I guess the UK centres don't make headlines.

As is Microsoft:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c79vq1453r7o

To repeat: GOOGLE IS BUILDING AI DATACENTRES IN THE UK.

https://blog.google/around-the-globe/google-europe/united-kingdom/waltham-cross-data-centre/

But we have the advantage of a stable climate Of course bigger countries are going to catch up, that's a good thing. And as they develop they will demand higher wages and better conditions amd then they'll no longer be so cheap. And work will come back here, it's already happened in China.

America is very different from India.
I am not sure it's doing so well either.

But I have gone off on a tangent.

America has those issues (minus the caste system) and manages.

No, definitely not. India struggles for water.
But they need to employ all the young people somehow. Very young nation.

Perhaps there's more water available there. The UK's water resources are struggling and AI reportedly uses enormous amounts.