Gemini 2.5 Flash's chats will be stored on India data-centers
What's the story
Google has announced that its latest artificial intelligence (AI) model, Gemini 2.5 Flash, will be hosted entirely on India-based data centers. The move is part of the tech giant's expanded data residency efforts in the country. The move is likely to help Google attract customers in sectors like financial services, healthcare, and the public sector. These industries deal with sensitive data and have strict data residency requirements.
Features
A look at the AI model
Gemini 2.5 Flash is the firm's first fully hybrid reasoning model that offers developers the ability to turn thinking or reasoning on or off. It was first introduced as an early preview in April, and was made available to all developers in June. The model also allows users to set "thinking budgets" to control how much the model reasons, helping them optimize across quality, cost, and latency.
Statement
What did the company say?
Describing the reason behind the latest move, Bikram Singh Bedi, Vice President of Google Cloud Asia Pacific said, "India is a massive opportunity for us, and one of the key areas of focus is the public sector." "There are certain sectors where they are not comfortable with data not being in India...we've repeatedly heard our customers say, 'Hey, we'd like your AI models or your cloud infrastructure to be in India," he added.
Cloud expansion
Google operates 2 cloud regions in India
Google presently operates two cloud regions in India - Mumbai and Delhi-NCR. These have been empanelled by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Earlier in 2025, Google Cloud partnered with the Uttar Pradesh government to launch an AI-backed agricultural network called Uttar Pradesh Open Network for Agriculture. The open network will offer millions of farmers with one-stop access to essential services such as advisory services, credit, mechanization, and market connectivity.