AirTrunk, a data center operator backed by Blackstone, plans to invest $30 billion in India by 2030, adding 5GW of data center capacity. As global technology companies accelerate the deployment of AI computing power, India is becoming a new hub for cloud computing and data center construction.
5GW project to be implemented in India
AirTrunk stated that this investment will be used to build new data center projects, representing one of the largest commitments in India's digital infrastructure sector in recent years. The company entered the Indian market earlier this year through the acquisition of Lumina CloudInfra and has since accelerated its local expansion.
Research firm Bernstein predicts that India's total data center capacity could rise from approximately 1.5GW currently to a maximum of 8GW by 2030. Based on this projection, AirTrunk's proposed 5GW plan represents a significant portion of this future growth.
The Mabang project involves approximately US$21 billion.
Earlier this week, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis stated on the X platform that the local government had exchanged letters of intent with AirTrunk regarding land allocation for the Raigad Pen Growth Center. The project has a planned capacity of 3GW and an investment of approximately 2 trillion rupees, equivalent to about US$21 billion.
In addition to this project, AirTrunk currently has approximately 600MW of development reserves in Mumbai, Chennai, and Hyderabad. The company did not specify whether the Raigad project would cover the majority of the planned 5GW capacity, nor did it disclose whether it would pursue new projects in other parts of India.
Policy support attracts more investment in computing power
Prior to the investment announcement, AirTrunk CEO Robin Khuda met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Modi subsequently stated that the investment would help enhance India's position in the global cloud computing and artificial intelligence industry.
Earlier this year, the Indian government proposed providing foreign cloud service providers with tax breaks until 2047 for cloud service workloads hosted in Indian data centers and sold overseas. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Uber have also previously announced investments in cloud and AI infrastructure in India.
Electricity and land remain constraints on expansion.
Despite continued investment, data center construction remains highly dependent on electricity, water, and land supply. Industry executives and analysts generally agree that electricity is likely to be the most significant limiting factor. Deloitte estimates that data center expansion in the Asia-Pacific region could generate tens of terawatt-hours of additional electricity demand by the end of this decade.
