In 2024 and beyond, keep an eye out for these notable data center projects in India.
Many companies, such as AdaniConnex, Reliance, Sify, Atlassian, Yotta, and AWS, have declared large investments in data centers throughout India in recent months. Just AWS intends to invest $12.7 billion in the nation’s data center expansion.
Furthermore, Kotak Alternate Assets plans to contribute $800 million to help with the construction of five to seven massive data centers in India’s most important real estate markets. Major international players are drawn to India by its proposed data center policies and data protection regulations, which are driving the desire for cost-effectiveness and data localization.
The capacity is expected to surpass ~1,300 MW by the end of 2024 due to the growth of India’s data center business; this represents a significant increase from ~1,048 MW at the end of 2023 and ~880 MW as of June 2023. Seven cities continue to have a high concentration of data centers: Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai-Navi Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, and Hyderabad.
By the end of 2023, these cities had grown by 35% annually, with a capacity of around 884 MW and an area of more than 13 million square feet. With 52% of the overall data center capacity, Mumbai-Navi Mumbai is in first place, followed by Chennai (16%), Delhi-NCR (11%), Bengaluru (9%), Pune (7%), Hyderabad (4%), and Kolkata (1%).
The emergence of co-location and edge computing facilities is anticipated to change the dynamics, with edge data centers moving into Tier 2 cities in 2024, notwithstanding the concentration in the top four sites.
In India, data center occupancy rates were estimated to be between 75 to 80% in 2023, and by the end of 2024, they should have improved even more.
Top 2024 Data Center Projects:
Here is a list of a few notable data center projects that are coming up in 2024 and beyond that you should follow:
In response to the rising need for edge facilities in Tier 2 markets, Yotta Data Services, supported by the Yotta Hiranandani Group, is developing its operations in Greater Noida and Guwahati. By the end of 2024, these scheduled operations should be finished and operationalized.
Yotta-D1, the company’s current data center, is 85% occupied, which has led to plans to build its D2 and D3 facilities. To address the need for AI-driven data, Yotta has announced a partnership with NVIDIA to construct an AI data center in GIFT City, Gujarat, following the purchase of over 16,000 NVIDIA H100 GPUs.
With operations in 15 major cities and plans to add over 600 MW of new data center capacity by 2029, CtrlS is a Hyderabad-based pioneer of Tier 4 data centers in India. With an extra 5 million square feet of expansion, CtrlS now holds a significant position in the world’s Rated-4 data center market.
CtrlS is branching out into Tier 2 cities, spending Rs 250 crore in a greenfield Edge data center in Uttarakhand, in addition to its ongoing projects in Navi Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Chennai. The managed, cloud, and co-location services will all be supported by the proposed data center.
CtrlS Datacenters recently declared that work on building a new data center complex in Chennai has begun, involving a substantial expenditure of Rs 4000 crore ($482.5 million). The 72MW project in the industrial region of Ambattur comprises an on-site substation and occupies one million square feet over two buildings.
Beginning operations in Q2 2024, Chennai DC 1, the first building is fully booked. In October 2023, CtrlS announced intentions to expand, including a $2 billion commitment to add 350MW of AI and cloud-ready hyperscale data centers around Asia and the Middle East.
In January 2024, Digital Connexion—a joint venture including Digital Realty Trust, Brookfield Infrastructure Partners, and Reliance Industries—opened MAA10, a 20 MW greenfield data center, in Chennai.
This is the first phase of a possible campus with 100 MW. 20MW of IT load is provided by the first phase, MAA10, with a modular infrastructure design that allows for scalable response to changing workload demands. The company increased its footprint by purchasing 2.15 acres of land in Mumbai to build a 40 MW data center.
Situated in a major industrial center, the facility provides ultrahigh-power densities and supports upcoming technologies like AI and massive language models.
As part of its total expenditure of Rs 9,000 crore in the next five to six years on greenfield data center projects, Chennai-based Sify has raised financing for new data centers in 2024. The company is investing up to $73 million in its subsidiary, Sify Infiniti Spaces, which will run these planned data centers, in collaboration with Kotak Data Centre Fund. Through 11 sites spread across India, Sify hopes to add 350 MW to its present data center capacity of 100 MW. Projects in Chennai, Mumbai, Noida, and Bengaluru are scheduled to begin early in 2024.
Prioritizing sustainability, Singapore-based ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC India) has teamed up with O2 Power to purchase renewable energy for its Bengaluru site. STT GDC India plans to invest approximately Rs 2,000 crore in 2024 to construct two new data centers on its current location in Pune’s Dighi neighborhood, exceeding 80 MW of IT load capacity. This puts the Pune campus of STT Global Data Centres, which has three operational facilities and an existing capacity of 40 MW, among the largest data center campuses in India.
In the first half of 2024, the Sydney-based software business Atlassian intends to invest in building data centers in India. In order to meet data residency regulations, Atlassian is moving, and in order to get its products into these Indian data centers, Atlassian will work with Amazon. Co-founder and co-CEO Scott Farquhar highlighted his optimism for the market’s future growth while expressing faith in India’s expanding economy and talent pool. With more than 250,000 clients, Atlassian, a NASDAQ-listed company, offers productivity and team collaboration software worldwide. Notable customers in India include Walmart Labs, Ola Cabs, Reliance, and Flipkart.
Farquhar highlighted India’s market’s ability to withstand downturns globally and views it as a growing market. With 60 workers when it first opened shop in India in 2018, Atlassian now employs 1,700 people there, making it the country with the quickest rate of employee growth.
J.P. Morgan India has granted $155.9 million to CapitaLand India Trust (CLINT), formerly known as Ascendas India Trust, for the construction of a data center in Navi Mumbai. The 6.6-acre Airoli complex in Navi Mumbai is expected to have two buildings. By Q2 of 2024, the 325,000-square-foot first building should be operational, with a full build-up capacity of 575,000 square feet and 90 MW. In addition, CLINT is preparing data centers in Hyderabad, Chennai, and Ambattur intending to serve cloud service providers and international technology firms.
The company, which hosts clients like Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Oracle Cloud, has two new carrier-neutral and service-neutral data centers in Mumbai, designated MB1 and MB2. Equinix is stepping up its footprint in India with a $42 million investment in MB4, a new data center in Kalwa that is scheduled to open before March 2024.
By acquiring GPX Global Systems, Equinix, a multinational company with 250 data centers across the globe, joined the Indian market. Equinix introduced full-fledged services, including cutting-edge technologies like Equinix Fabric, Equinix Internet Exchange, and Equinix Internet Access, in India in 2023.
Adani Enterprises and EdgeConnex Inc. formed AdaniConnex, a joint venture, and together they have invested a considerable $1.5 billion. The enterprise is presently engaged in the process of obtaining an extra $400 million offshore loan to set up data centers in strategic regions including Visakhapatnam, New Delhi, Mumbai, and Chennai.
In May 2023, information was made public on the two Andhra Pradesh data centers, Madhurawada and Kapuluppada, which are close to Visakhapatnam and have a combined investment of ₹21,844 crore.
This project is a component of a larger scheme to build nine data centers by 2030, to achieve a total capacity of 1 GW. A $213 million loan has already been obtained by the JV for the 50 MW Noida site and the Chennai 1 campus in 2023.
Google is moving forward with the construction of an 8-story, 381,000-square-foot data center in Navi Mumbai. Google now operates in two Indian GCP cloud zones, in Delhi and Mumbai. This project, which will be carried out in collaboration with Raiden Infotech, is anticipated to be finished by 2025 and will enhance Google’s current operations. In addition, Google leased a 464,000-square-foot space at the Noida Adani Centre, demonstrating its dedication to growing its cloud infrastructure in one of its key emerging markets—India.
AWS plans to create four smaller data centers in India over the next two years, with strategic locations in Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, and Kolkata. To improve networking speed and security, AWS also intends to deploy 32 local zones in 26 different countries within the same period. The cloud services that the regional centers will provide will meet a range of use cases, including gaming, streaming videos, and apps that need real-time input. The basis for AWS regions will be these regional zones, which will allow computing, storage, databases, and other services to be close to consumers and businesses for increased effectiveness and efficiency.
