India’s Next Big Buildout

How artificial intelligence is bringing in capex and reshaping India’s digital infrastructure

- Rohit Chintapali

INDIA HAS ALWAYS had a talent for arriving late to a technology wave and then riding it harder than anyone else. It happened with mobile data, where Reliance Jio's 2016 entry collapsed prices and turned India into the world's largest consumer of mobile data. It happened with digital payments, where UPI processed 22.6 billion transactions in a single month by March 2026. Now, the same dynamic is perhaps playing out in the server halls, cooling systems, and fibre corridors of data centres that most Indians will never see but increasingly cannot live without.

A Market in Acceleration

According to CBRE's estimates, India's total data centre capacity reached approximately 1,700 MW in 2025, with a record 440 MW of new supply addition, a 160 per cent growth compared to 2024. CBRE expects a further 500 MW of new supply in 2026 alone, which would push total national stock up by roughly 30 per cent year-on-year (YoY).

Investment commitments to the sector reached a cumulative $126 billion by end-2025, with $56.4 billion committed in 2025 alone. CBRE projects these cumulative commitments will surpass $180 billion by end-2026, a 45 per cent YoY increase. These are announced commitments, including signed agreements, declared investment plans, and multiyear capex forecasts, rather than capital already deployed, a distinction every infrastructure investor must price carefully. "The data centre story in India is no longer about potential but about execution at scale. The sector's resilience and attractive return potential are establishing it as a primary focus for investors, with foreign capital playing a dominant role," says Anshuman Magazine, Chairman & CEO, India, South-East Asia, Middle East & Africa, CBRE.