India's data centre footprint to touch over 101 million sq ft by 2030

New Delhi: India's data centre footprint is expected to touch over 101 million sq ft by 2030 as the sector scales up to meet the country’s accelerating digital requirements.

From just 0.6 million sq ft in 2007, it has reached nearly 27 million sq ft by H1 2026, according to Anarock.

Approximately USD 300 billion in investment commitments will drive the upcoming supply, placing India among the fastest growing DC markets as global investment commitment stood at USD 3,000 billion.


“The projected data centre footprint highlights the physical scale of the real estate opportunity. Unlike conventional office or industrial developments, data centres are highly infrastructure-intensive assets, requiring large land parcels, substantial power capacity, advanced cooling systems, robust connectivity, and high levels of operational resilience,” said Shobhit Agarwal, CEO - Anarock Capital.

The report highlights that DC capacity is following a similar growth trajectory. From less than 1 GW only a few years ago, India has crossed 1.8+ GW as of H1 2026. The development pipeline is expected to boost capacity to over 6.7 GW by the end of the decade - a more than threefold increase in the next four years.

“This projected footprint doesn’t represent just additional built-up space requirements – this is a specialised asset class at the intersection of real estate, technology and infrastructure. As operators expand their portfolios, demand for strategically located land, power infrastructure, renewable energy, engineering and construction services, fibre connectivity and specialised cooling solutions will rise in tandem,” Agarwal said.

In comparison, global DC capacity crossed 92+ GW in H1 2026 and is projected to touch 210+ GW by 2030-end - with overall investment commitments of USD 3,000 Bn by the first half that year.

Mumbai-MMR remains India’s dominant data centre hub thanks to its outsized financial and commercial ecosystem, strong enterprise demand, and connectivity advantages. However, the DC market is increasingly expanding across other major digital and business centres, including Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Hyderabad.

“The massive scale of investment commitments demonstrates the long-term confidence surrounding the sector, and its strategic importance to the digital economy. It also reflects the convergence of multiple structural demand drivers – including cloud adoption, rising data consumption, artificial intelligence (AI), digital payments, enterprise digitalisation and the growing need for secure and resilient digital infrastructure,” Agarwal said.

The rapid adoption of AI is one of the most important drivers of current and future data centre demand. AI will directly impact the design and engineering requirements of the next generation of facilities.

The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 further emphasises the importance of secure domestic data infrastructure, supporting the broader requirement for robust and compliant data management capabilities.

The infrastructure status accorded to data centres has also helped improve access to long tenure financing at interest rates of around 9.5-10.5%, for tenures extending up to 12 years. The proposed tax holiday through 2047 for eligible global cloud service providers further enhances India’s competitiveness.

The report highlights that the next phase will be defined by power, land, and connectivity. With the projected footprint and capacity growth, and the investment commitments supporting the broader ecosystem, India’s data centre market must scale up at an extraordinary rate.

The challenge of ensuring that supporting infrastructure keeps pace with this expansion cannot be under-estimated. Reliable power, suitable land, high-speed connectivity and access to renewable energy will determine where the next generation of data centre capacity can be developed.