Sterling & Wilson bets big on Indian data centre boom

Mumbai: India's fast-growing data centre industry is emerging as a key growth driver for the Sterling & Wilson group, prompting the EPC major to ramp up investments, expand manufacturing capacity and scale operations across multiple businesses. The group, which operates through four entities-Sterling & Wilson Renewable Energy, Sterling Green (formerly Sterling Generators), Sterling & Wilson Data Centre and its engineering business-sees data centre and generator businesses gaining most from the rapid expansion of digital infrastructure in the country.

"There is large growth that we are seeing in the data centre segment. Mainly, the revenues are coming from India right now. We are working in the Middle East and Africa...in Egypt, Saudi Arabia and other parts of Africa. But for the majority of the current year, order booking and revenue are now coming from India because the growth potential here is huge," group chairman Khurshed Daruvala told ET.



The data centre unit's order book expanded to ₹1,770 crore at the end of fiscal 2026 from ₹1,000 crore in March 2025. "This year, the company has already crossed ₹2,700 crore in orders and expects bookings to exceed ₹5,000 crore by the end of the current financial year," said Daruvala. In terms of revenue, the business generated nearly ₹600 crore last fiscal year, and the company is targeting around ₹1,900 crore for FY27.

The group entered the data centre segment nearly a decade ago, and as demand for data storage and artificial intelligence infrastructure surges, the business is now witnessing strong growth.

Industry estimates suggest India's data centre capacity could rise from around 1.5 gigawatts currently to 8-10 gigawatts by 2030 and touch 20 gigawatts over the long term.

The growth in data centres is also boosting demand for backup power systems, benefiting Sterling Green's generator business.

According to Daruvala, data centre-related orders in the generator segment rose to about ₹1,000 crore last fiscal year from around ₹700 crore two years earlier. In just the first two months of the current financial year, the company has secured nearly ₹1,350 crore of data centre-related generator orders, he said.

To meet rising demand, Sterling Green is expanding its manufacturing capacities. The company is commissioning a new facility in Pune and reallocating production of small generators to the new facility from its Silvassa plant, allowing the existing facility to focus on larger, high-capacity generator sets.