Synopsis: The presence of the generative AI platforms like ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity, and autonomous AI agents’ is triggering an unprecedented development of data-centre infrastructure across India, transforming the country into a major digital power hub in Asia-Pacific.
India is no longer a consumer of AI rather is becoming a place of booming AI-led infrastructural developments including data centres. Nearly 20% of the total leasing demand in India is AI related workloads, as per reports of Knight Frank India. Driven by surging demand for compute-intensive workloads, the country’s data center sector is going to further scale-up that a few markets globally can match.
India’s Position in the Global Data Centre Landscape
India positions itself as the second-largest data centre market in the Asia Pacific region with around 1.6W of operational capacity which is around 5 times since 2016, and ranks among the top-three in this region. The primary catalyst driving these numbers is the corporate adoption of AI and pushing cumulative data centre colocation leasing past the 2.06W milestone in 2025. Approximately more than $28 billion investments are planned for the upcoming data centres in India with an expected total of 4.8 GW projected by 2030, making it one of the fastest-growing markets in Asia.
AI Demand Drivers: The Generative AI Effect
The computational requirements of ChatGPT, Gemini, Anthropic’s Claude, Perplexity, and the other AI agent frameworks usually require a GPU-dense infrastructure, low-latency interconnection, and reliable power. With the rapid surge of data consumption and combination of rising penetration of 5G, cloud systems, and AI are fueling the explosive growth in India’s data centre industry, and the average consumption of data per month is around 27.5 GB, which is one of the highest levels globally.
Key Cities and Regions
India’s data centre globally is dominated by a few high-growth markets, and the key cities and regions are,
Mumbai and Navi Mumbai
- Mumbai accounts for approximately 47% of India’s total operational data centre capacity, which is sustained by dense terrestrial fibre networks, international submarine cable landing stations, and a huge localized corporate client base.
- This city is on track to surpass 1 GW of operational capacity by the end of 2026, and further positioning India as a primary market in Asia Pacific.
- There is a cluster of development along the four corridors which are, Central Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane-Kalyan, and the future Third Mumbai City zone.
- Top Ongoing Projects- The top ongoing projects in this region are Yotta NM1, AdaniConneX Navi Mumbai, STT GDC, Blackstone-Panchsil which is India’s first 500 MW campus.
Bengaluru
- Bengaluru is rapidly growing in terms of data centres, driven by heavy corporate enterprise demand, expansion of Global Capability Centres (GCCs), and need for secure BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) server deployments.
- State government policies are providing subsidies for renewable energy integration for sustainable data centre development, with NTT and CtrlS both having active facilities with AI supported upgrades.
- STT GDC India is integrating high-density compute support for AI and machine learning workloads with enhanced power and cooling systems, which will serve cloud providers, telecoms, and government clients.
- Top Ongoing Projects- STT GDC Bengaluru, CtrlS, and NTT which is a national 400 MW scale-up, are the ongoing projects in the city.
Hyderabad
- This city is rapidly transforming into a primary hub for large-scale hyperscale layouts and computational clusters specialized in AI, backed by the state government policies and investments targeting cloud infrastructure developments.
- CtrlS signed an MoU with the state government of Telangana to develop a 400 MW data centre cluster in the state.
- The hyperscale data centre park in Hyderabad spanning over 2 million sq ft. is being constructed by CtrlS.
- Top Ongoing Projects- CtrlS AI Mega Campus, NTT, STT GDC which committed over US $420 million for its facility in Hyderabad.
Delhi-NCR and Noida
- Noida and Delhi-NCR belt has approx. 25 data centre facilities, by multiple colocation providers and the majority of these facilities are from Yotta.
- This region is evolving due to the GCC expansion and the growing need for secure servers for BFSI.
- Top Ongoing Projects- Yotta, and NTT has a new campus as a part of national 400 MW scale-up.
Also read: Top 7 Cities That Recorded the Highest Housing Sales in Q1 2026
Chennai
- This city is a prime maritime gateway and manages high-volume data traffic between India and Southeast Asia.
- The data centre market of Chennai is approx. 202.43 MW in 2025, and is expected to rise up to 551.15 MW by 2030. This growth reflects a CAGR of 22.18%.
- Equinox opened CN1 facility backed with an investment of initially $69 million.
- CtrlS invested around $482 million in the Chennai campus which is a 72 MW project and is spanning over 1 million sq ft.
- Top Ongoing Projects- Equinix CN1, CtrlS Chennai DC Park, NTT-Netmagic, and STT GDC are the top ongoing projects in this city.
Pune
- As STT GDC is one of India’s top colocation service providers and is currently expanding in Pune and Bengaluru with a focus on AI and machine learning infrastructure which benefits Pune’s IT and employment ecosystem.
- Top Ongoing Projects- STT GDC Pune is AI and ML focused high-density colocation expansion.
Visakhapatnam
- The state government of Andhra Pradesh under Policy 4.0 removes the transmission charges for open-access power which effectively reduces the operational costs. This attracts hyperscale investments in the region.
- Google is expected to invest $15 billion over five years to establish a 1 GW AI data centre campus in Visakhapatnam, which is claimed to be the largest AI hub investment by Google outside the US.
- Top Ongoing Projects- Google-AdaniConneX AI Campus
Jamnagar, Gujarat
- Alongside Visakhapatnam the next AI infrastructure growth is signalled by this city in Gujarat, Jamnagar.
- Reliance Industries announced a 1 GW data centre project in this region which aims a growth of 3 GW total capacity and will potentially become one of the world’s largest data centres.
- Top Ongoing Projects- Reliance Jamnagar Centre which is targeting a 3 GW total national capacity and is under construction from April 2025.
Market Outlook
The multi-market environment of India positions the country strongly for the next phase of AI infrastructure buildout. In 2025, India added 387 MW IT of data centre capacity which is more than double the capacity in 2024. This reflects a 103% year-on-year growth. The absorption rose from 407 MW IT in 2024 to 427 MW IT in 2025 resulting in 5% year-on-year growth. The cities which led the absorption together are Mumbai and Chennai accounting for 70% of the total in 2025. The growth was driven by hyperscale data centres fuelled by cloud adoption and expanding SaaS and AI workloads.
Written by Jahnavi
