New milestone awaits India's data centre bet

Investments in data centres in India, which are said to be the factories and storage houses of digital data and artificial intelligence (AI) models, are set to grow by up to 20% next year, following a record 2025.

- Shouvik Das

This growth could come in the form of new investments from global firms, as well as homegrown ones-leading to projections that India's net available data centres will surge to 2 gigawatts (GW) in capacity by the end of next year, executives and analysts told Mint.On 17 October, Chennai-based data centre company Sify Infinit Spaces filed its draft red herring prospectus with the markets regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to raise up to ₹3,700 crore ($410 million). Of this, it plans to spend ₹2,500 crore ($280 million) for data centre expansions. By 2030, it aims to scale up investments in data centres to $5 billion.

Big Tech firms are also likely to invest in data centres. OpenAI, the world’s largest AI startup, is expected to invest in a 1GW data centre for its ChatGPT-led AI applications and services in India-a market that chief executive Sam Altman said is OpenAI's largest.

Green energy firms are also likely to join the fray, with analysts stating investments of up to $30 billion being planned for data centres from top private renewable energy companies, in 2026 itself.