India data centre capacity crosses 1.5 GW, Mumbai home to half of it: Report

Mumbai, Nov 12 (PTI) India's data centre capacity has increased by 260 MW to touch 1.5 GW at the end of September, a property consultant said on Wednesday.

At a time when concerns are being raised about the resource intensive data centres presence near major cities, the report by CBRE said 53 per cent of the country's capacity is in Mumbai, the country's financial capital.

The report said the capacity addition is led by factors such as rapid digitalisation, favourable government regulations, and increasing corporate investments in artificial intelligence (AI).

Anshuman Magazine, the chairman and chief executive of the company for India, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa, said the policy insistence on data localisation and other government policies is also attracting investors.

India has attracted nearly USD 94 billion in data centre investment commitments since 2019, with Telangana, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu emerging as the top-three destinations, it said.

Investment commitments of USD 30 billion have been done to set up data centres in India in the January-September period of 2025, it said.

It can be noted that the recent past has seen investment announcements by a slew of entities, including conglomerates like the Tata Group, which has announced plans to build 1 GW of capacity by itself.

India offers one of the most cost-competitive data centre environments globally, supported by relatively lower construction and electricity costs as compared to markets such as Singapore, China, and Japan.

Additionally, the presence of global capability centres (GCC) of companies across the globe also helps as such players require computing capacity to run their AI work, it said.

Interest in setting up capacity in Mumbai is primarily due to its proximity to global internet exchange points and a key entry location for worldwide submarine cables, it said.

Chennai has a fifth of country-wide capacity and ranks a distant second, while Delhi NCR at 10 per cent and Bengaluru at 7 per cent come next, it said. PTI AA TRB