India's data centre pipeline reaches 8.33 GW driven by AI adoption, data localisation

India’s data centre development pipeline has surged to 8.33 GW, more than five times the country’s current live operational capacity of 1.6 GW, a report said on Saturday.

The rapid growth of the data centre development pipeline is due to accelerating artificial intelligence adoption, cloud growth and data localisation requirements, the report from Knight Frank India said.

India is emerging as one of the world’s most attractive destinations for hyperscale digital infrastructure investments and currently has 0.32 GW of data centre capacity under construction, while another 2.92 GW has reached the committed stage, the report said.

Additionally, 5.41 GW of capacity is in the early stages of development.

The scale of the pipeline reflects growing confidence among hyperscalers, cloud providers, AI infrastructure operators and institutional investors, who continue to expand their presence in India to cater to rapidly rising digital demand.

The significant share of early-stage developments—representing nearly two-thirds of the total pipeline—demonstrates strong confidence in India’s long-term digital economy prospects.

"While Mumbai continues to anchor hyperscale deployments owing to its connectivity advantages, Hyderabad is emerging as a preferred AI infrastructure destination," said Viral Desai, International Partner, Senior Executive Director- Occupier Strategy & Solutions, Industrial & Logistics, Capital Markets & Retail, Knight Frank India.

Mumbai accounted for the largest share of future capacity development with a total pipeline at 3.75 GW.

Hyderabad became India’s second-largest future data centre market with a total development pipeline of 1.93 GW.

Chennai is strengthening its role as a strategic gateway for international data traffic from the east, Desai added.

Vizag has rapidly emerged as one of India’s most active greenfield data centre markets, attracting gigawatt-scale development proposals backed by government support, availability of sizeable land parcels and planned subsea cable connectivity.

The National Capital Region (NCR), Pune and Bengaluru are also witnessing sustained development activity as operators diversify capacity across multiple markets