India emerges as top APAC data centre market outside China: BloombergNEF

India has emerged as the top data centre market in the Asia-Pacific region outside China, with live IT capacity quadrupling to 1.7 GW in six years. BloombergNEF expects electricity demand from data centres to rise eightfold by 2035.

New Delhi: India has emerged as top data centre market in the Asia-Pacific region (APAC), outside China, after its live IT capacity quadrupled over the past six years to 1.7 GW, a report showed on Friday.

The country has a strong pipeline with 1.3GW under construction and another 3.2GW of projects that have secured the land, power and permits needed for construction, according to the report by Bloomberg New Energy Finance (NEF).

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“Strong scores on energy availability and fibre connectivity make India a preferred destination for building data centres in Asia-Pacific,” the report noted.

Maharashtra remains India’s dominant data centre market. It has the largest live IT base, accounting for 55 per cent of the total capacity in the country.

According to the report, it also has the largest pipeline of projects which have received necessary approvals to start construction.

The report further stated that Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh will play critical roles in next phase of growth as companies announce large investment and projects in these states.

Domestic conglomerates have committed $210 billion to data centre development in India, accounting for 45 per cent of total announced investment.

“Global hyperscalers Google, Amazon and Microsoft are the next-largest investor group, with $84 billion announced. About 95 per cent of all announced investment is targeting large hyperscale AI campuses,” said the report.

BloombergNEF expects India’s data centre electricity demand to grow more than eightfold to 91 terawatt-hours in 2035 from 11 terawatt-hours in 2025.

“Power usage will pick up as under-construction hyperscale capacities come online in the next 3-10 years. Many hyperscalers have net-zero targets for 2030, so their use of renewable electricity is also expected to rise,” the findings showed.

India’s installed electricity generation capacity has grown at a 7.1 per cent compound annual rate since 2021 to keep up with rising demand.