India’s data centre capacity hits new high as AI powers a 4x boom

India has emerged as the most attractive data centre market among 10 Asia-Pacific markets outside China, with its live IT capacity quadrupling in six years to 1.7 gigawatts (GW), according to a Times of India report which cited BloombergNEF. The country also has another 1.3 GW under construction and 3.2 GW of projects that have secured land, power and permits, putting India at the centre of the region’s next data infrastructure buildout.

India scored 73 in BloombergNEF’s assessment, ahead of Indonesia at 68, Japan at 63 and Singapore at 62. The ranking considers factors including energy availability, land, taxes, fibre connectivity and existing live capacity. BloombergNEF said India’s strong scores on energy availability and fibre connectivity make it an attractive destination for data centre development in Asia-Pacific.

The scale of investment already committed suggests the next phase will be driven largely by artificial intelligence. Reliance Industries and the Adani Group have together committed $210 billion to data centre development in India, accounting for 45% of total announced investment, BloombergNEF said. Around 95% of announced investment is aimed at large hyperscale AI campuses.


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

Global technology companies are also adding to the investment pipeline. Google, Amazon and Microsoft together have announced $84 billion of investment, according to BloombergNEF.

Maharashtra leads, new hubs emerge

Maharashtra remains the largest data centre market in India, accounting for 55% of live IT capacity. It also has the largest pipeline of projects that have secured the approvals needed to begin construction.

The state’s position is supported by enterprise demand, cloud infrastructure, subsea cable connectivity and an established data centre developer ecosystem, BloombergNEF said.

The next wave of expansion is expected to spread beyond Maharashtra. Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh are expected to gain a larger share as companies announce new projects and investments.

Also Read: India’s AI data-centre push could drive 5% of global chip demand by 2030

Andhra Pradesh, in particular, is emerging as a major AI infrastructure hub. The Economic Times reported in April that Reliance Industries plans to invest ₹1.6 lakh crore, or more than $17 billion, to develop a 1.5 GW AI-focused data centre cluster in Visakhapatnam, alongside captive solar and battery storage capacity. The project is planned in phases, with the first 500 MW targeted for October 2028.

That investment is part of a broader shift towards large, power-intensive AI campuses rather than conventional enterprise-focused data centres.

Data centres could become a bigger power story

The growth in computing capacity is expected to sharply increase electricity demand.

Under BloombergNEF’s Economic Transition Scenario, India’s annual electricity consumption from data centres is projected to rise more than eightfold, from 11 terawatt-hours (TWh) in 2025 to 91 TWh in 2035. The increase will come as hyperscale facilities currently under construction become operational over the next three to 10 years.

India’s installed power-generation capacity has grown at a compound annual rate of 7.1% since 2021. But BloombergNEF cautioned that transmission capacity has not always expanded at the same pace, with delays in commissioning some power projects in the past.

Also Read: The AI pilot era is ending. Now enterprises are worrying about the bill, says Snowflake

That could become an issue for data centres because hyperscale AI facilities require large and reliable power supplies.

Cooling could become another pressure point

Power is not the only infrastructure challenge.

Most Indian data centres currently use air-based cooling systems, meaning water is not an immediate constraint for the sector, BloombergNEF said. However, facilities using more water-intensive cooling systems could put additional pressure on supplies in water-stressed cities such as Bengaluru and Chennai.

The combination of power availability, transmission infrastructure, land and cooling requirements could therefore determine where India's next generation of AI data centres gets built.