India’s data‑centre boom widens

India is adding data-centre capacity at a pace that is pulling in Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Google and Indian groups such as Adani and Reliance. (jll.com) JLL said India’s installed data-centre inventory reached 1,123 megawatts of information-technology load in the first half of 2025, after net take-up rose 48% from a year earlier to 97.9 megawatts. CBRE said capacity had already reached about 1,255 megawatts in the first nine months of 2024 and projected roughly 1,600 megawatts by the end of that year. (jll.com) (cbre.co.in) CBRE said last week that India’s total data-centre stock across major cities is projected to rise another 30% in 2026, with about 500 megawatts of new supply. The firm said investment commitments in the sector reached $56.4 billion in 2025 and could exceed $180 billion in 2026. (economictimes.indiatimes.com) (businesstoday.in) The demand is coming from cloud computing and artificial intelligence, which need large buildings packed with servers, power gear and cooling systems. JLL said hyperscale cloud providers, banks and financial firms, and artificial-intelligence workloads were driving the jump in absorption in 2025. (jll.com) Global cloud companies are putting named dollars behind that demand. Amazon Web Services said in May 2023 that it would invest 1.06 lakh crore rupees, or about $12.7 billion, in cloud infrastructure in India by 2030, and Microsoft said on January 7, 2025 that it would invest $3 billion over two years in cloud and artificial-intelligence infrastructure and skilling, including new datacenters. (press.aboutamazon.com) (news.microsoft.com) Google is expanding in India too. Google Cloud lists Mumbai as an operating region, and Google’s India business said its Delhi National Capital Region cloud region had gone live, giving the company a second local region for customers that want lower latency and in-country processing. (cloud.google.com) (youtube.com) Indian conglomerates are trying to build the local side of that market. AdaniConneX says it is targeting 1 gigawatt of data-centre capacity in India, while its site lists 250 megawatts of potential information-technology load on current projects. (edgeconnex.com) (adaniconnex.com) State governments are competing for those projects with land, power and approvals. Uttar Pradesh’s electronics agency says the state’s data-centre policy had 205 megawatts of proposed capacity and 101 megawatts already commercialized as of June 2025, with projects from NTT, Adani and others. (uplc.up.gov.in) India’s privacy rules are part of the backdrop, but they are not a blanket order to store everything inside the country. The Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 created the legal framework, and the government notified the Digital Personal Data Protection Rules, 2025 on November 14, 2025, while the law still allows cross-border transfers unless the government restricts specific jurisdictions. (indiacode.nic.in) (pib.gov.in) (ksandk.com) The next constraint is electricity. As more cloud and artificial-intelligence computing moves into India, the winners will be the operators that can secure land, grid connections and enough power to keep thousands of servers running around the clock. (thehindubusinessline.com)