New Delhi, Aug 21: India has emerged as the leading data centre market in the Asia-Pacific region outside China, with its live IT capacity nearly quadrupling over the past six years to 1.7 GW, according to a BloombergNEF report.
The country is also witnessing a strong pipeline of new projects, with 1.3 GW of data centre capacity currently under construction and another 3.2 GW in projects that have secured land, power and the necessary approvals.
Strong power availability and fibre connectivity are helping India attract growing investments in digital infrastructure. The expansion is being driven by rising demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence, digital services and data storage.
Maharashtra continues to lead India’s data centre market, accounting for around 55 per cent of the country’s existing IT capacity. The state also has the largest pipeline of projects that have received the required clearances for construction.
Several other states, including Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh, are expected to play an important role in the next phase of India’s data centre expansion as major investments and projects move forward.
Domestic business groups have announced around $210 billion in data centre investments, representing nearly 45 per cent of the total announced investment. Global technology companies such as Google, Amazon and Microsoft have also announced significant investments in the sector.
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence is expected to further increase demand for large-scale computing facilities. BloombergNEF estimates that India’s data centre electricity consumption could rise more than eightfold to 91 terawatt-hours by 2035, from 11 terawatt-hours in 2025.
With investment expanding across multiple states and demand for digital infrastructure rising, India is increasingly positioning itself as a major global destination for data centres and AI-related infrastructure.