Synopsis: Adani and Ambani are two major real estate players, both aiming to strengthen their presence in the data center sector. This article examines which of these powerhouses is positioned for faster growth.
India’s digital economy is projected to surpass $1 trillion by 2030 powered by cloud services, 5G expansion and AI innovation. The country is witnessing an unprecedented boom in data center development with AdaniConneX having multiple campuses already under construction and partially operational, it also aims to build a broad network of hyperscale and colocation facilities across multiple Indian cities, whereas Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance is betting big on giga scale AI ready data centers also focusing on AI centric powered by renewable energy.
AdaniConneX
AdaniConneX is a joint venture between Adani Enterprise and Edge ConneX USA a global data center operator that runs facilities in over 30+ companies. Adani is centered around creating a distributed network of hyperscale data centers, delivering capacity in India’s top digital hubs. The Adani Group has set its sights on a 10-gigawatt data center empire by 2030.
Ongoing Projects of AdaniConneX:
- Chennai campus: it is an ongoing project with 33 MW IT load planned, Phase 1 is already operational which is 17 MW.
- Hyderabad campus: it is a planned 600 MW IT load capacity with Phase 1 live as of 2024 additional phases are under construction.
- Noida Data Center: this project is of 150 MW capacity with potential phase 1 in operation.
- Navi Mumbai & Pune: Major multi tower facilities under construction targeting enterprise and cloud clients for 1000 MW IT load potential.
- Visakhapatnam Mega AI Campus (with Google): A flagship project announced as India’s largest upcoming AI data center campus, a Gigawatt scale with development scheduled over 2026 – 2030.
Highlights:
- Adani is attracting global tech giants such as AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, offering them custom-built data centers aligned with India’s data localization requirements.
- Multiple sites, simultaneously under construction or live.
- Emphasis on renewable energy through green power purchase agreements.
- Faster near term rollout compared to Reliance’s early stage mega projects.
Also read: 7 Leading Investment Firms Betting Big on India’s Growing Data Centre Market
Reliance: Giga Scale AI-First Data Center Vision
Reliance is approaching the data center revolution differently by creating massive centralised AI optimized campuses designed to support GPU clusters, large models and cloud computing at national scale.
Ongoing In Development projects of Reliance in India:
- Andhra Pradesh: it is a 1 GW AI Data center part of a larger $ 8 – 10 billion renewable tech initiative. Paid with 6 GW solar plant to fully power it. Designed as a modular mega campus for cloud and AI workloads.
- Jamnagar: it is a 3 GW Data Center project reported as one of the largest planned data centers. Expected to anchor Reliance’s national AI ecosystem. Ongoing development phases with long term rollout.
- Digital Connexion (with Brookfield + Digital Realty): 2 campus one in Chennai – 20 MW facility on a 100 MW campus which is under construction, Mumbai – 40 MW data center site acquired and under developed.
Highlights:
- Unmatched scale projects in the 1 – 3 GW range dominate global benchmark.
- Ambani’s Reliance has formed a major partnership with NVIDIA, deploying 16,000 H100 GPUs and utilizing NVIDIA’s DGX SuperPOD and AI stack to drive Jio Brain.
- Fully integrated with Reliance Jio’s telecom and cloud platforms.
- AI focused infrastructure ideal for India’s LLM and GPU wave.
- Strong renewable energy synergy (6 GW solar farm backing AP project)
Closing Statement
The race between Adani and Ambani in data center development reflects 2 different philosophies: AdaniConneX is executing a distributed city based fast deployment model giving it a lead in near term operational capacity. Reliance is pursuing enormous AI driven mega campuses which once completed could position it as the dominant long term force in India’s generation digital infrastructure. In the sport term Adani leads in living and ongoing construction across multiple cities. Over the long term Reliance’s giga scale AI projects may surpass everyone else if executed effectively.
Written by Soumya M
