Data centre operators likely to invest up to Rs 60,000 crore by FY28: Crisil

Data centre players in India are expected to invest Rs 55,000-60,000 crore during FY2026 to FY2028, which will double the capacity in the range of 2.3-2.5 gigawatt, credit rating agency Crisil said on Tuesday.

Crisil estimates that the revenue of India's data centre operators, run by third parties, is expected to reach around Rs 20,000 crore annually by fiscal 2028, translating to a robust annual growth of 20-22 per cent as both enterprises and retail consumers dial up usage of digital technologies and platforms.

"The industry is expected to incur capex of Rs 55,000- 65,000 crore over fiscals 2026-2028 to cater to the surging demand. While this would require sizeable debt funding, growing Ebitda from operational capacities will keep leverage steady at 4.6-4.7 times and support credit profiles," Crisil Ratings Associate Director Nitin Bansal said.


Crisil said that the data centre industry growth will be driven by three factors -- rapid adoption of public cloud by enterprises amid ongoing digital transformation and technological advancements, growing investments in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and proliferation of 5G technology.

To cater to the buoyant demand, capacity in the industry is expected to double to 2.3-2.5 gigawatt (GW) by March 2028, the rating agency said.

Crisil said that despite the ramp up in capex, credit profiles seen healthy, supported by stable cash flow.

"The healthy revenue growth of 20-22 per cent for data centre operators will emanate from robust industry capacity addition, which is expected to double by March 2028. The incremental capacity of 1.1-1.3 GW estimated to be commissioned during fiscals 2026-2028 is expected to achieve timely tie-up backed by strong demand and India's data centre density of just about 65 MW per exabyte, one of the lowest globally," Crisil Ratings, Director, Anand Kulkarni said.