Data centres in India to attract $20-25 bn by 2030: Colliers

Bengaluru: India's data centre industry has seen investments of nearly $14.7 billion since 2020 and is likely to attract $20-25 billion more in the next 5-6 years, according to a report by Colliers out on Wednesday.

Data centre capacity across the top seven cities is expected to cross 4,500 MW by 2030. The capacity stands at 1,263 MW, as of April 2025. Capacity has grown over four times in the last 6-7 years, with 859 MW of capacity added since 2020.

Large-sized data centres (above 50 MW) are likely to account for nearly two-thirds of the inventory by 2030.

In turn, this is likely to translate into a real estate footprint of around 55 million square feet (msf) in the next 5-6 years, stated the report. Existing data centre real estate footprint spans 15.9 msf across the top seven markets. Rapid expansion in capacity has resulted in a surge of over three times in real estate footprint over the last 6-7 years.

This growth is driven by the surge in demand for digital and cloud services, increasing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and internet of things (IoT), and higher internet penetration. The expansion is supported by established global connectivity through submarine cables, availability of land and power at comparatively lower costs, supportive government policies, and burgeoning demand.

Major data centre operators are planning to expand their presence and are committing long-term investments across multiple tier-II and tier-III cities.

City-wise, Mumbai and Chennai together hold close to two-thirds of the data centre capacity. Mumbai accounts for the majority with a 41% share, followed by Chennai with 23%, and Delhi NCR with 14%.

Going forward, Tier-I markets are likely to witness 3,000- 3,700 MW of data centre capacity additions during 2025-2030. While Mumbai will continue to dominate the overall data centre market, Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Pune are likely to see multifold growth.

“Undoubtedly, India’s strategic advantages such as availability of land parcels, power supply for usage and availability of skilled talent, reinforces its position as one of the preferred destinations for data centers in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. Interestingly, the market is expanding beyond large-scale colocation facilities and hyperscalers to edge data centers driven by increasing need for lower latency, real-time analysis, enhanced app performance, and business agility,” said Jatin Shah, Chief Operating Officer, Colliers India.