Rapid AI adoption and digitalisation are driving a sharp expansion in India’s computing infrastructure, with shared AI compute capacity crossing 45,000 GPUs under the IndiaAI Mission
India’s installed data centre capacity has increased more than four-fold since 2020 to around 1,575 megawatts (MW), as the country accelerates investments in digital infrastructure to support the growing adoption of artificial intelligence (AI).
According to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), India’s installed data centre capacity has risen from around 375 MW in 2020 to 1,575 MW currently, marking more than a four-fold increase over the period.
The expansion comes as the government steps up efforts to strengthen the country’s computing infrastructure under the IndiaAI Mission, providing researchers, startups and innovators access to high-performance computing resources.
As of June 2026, the IndiaAI Mission had expanded shared compute capacity to more than 45,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs).
By August 2026, a total of 237 projects had accessed subsidised AI computing infrastructure, accounting for 93.18 lakh GPU hours.
The government said the initiative is aimed at making high-performance computing more affordable for Indian researchers, startups and innovators working on AI model development, training, testing and research.
Data centre footprint expands beyond traditional hubs
India’s data centre infrastructure remains concentrated in major technology and commercial hubs, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi-NCR and Gujarat.
More from BusinessHowever, the industry is increasingly expanding into newer investment destinations. According to MeitY, states such as Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal are emerging as new locations for data centre investments.
The expansion reflects the growing demand for computing capacity as AI adoption accelerates across businesses and government services.
India steps up focus on indigenous AI models
Alongside investments in computing infrastructure, the government is also pushing the development of indigenous AI models.
The government has selected 20 indigenous foundation model proposals from 506 applications. These include 12 Large Multimodal Models (LMMs) and eight Small Language Models (SLMs).
The initiative is aimed at developing AI models tailored to Indian languages, needs and contexts, strengthening the country’s domestic AI capabilities.
India’s AI ecosystem is also being supported through AI Kosh, which, as of July 2026, hosted more than 14,000 datasets and 331 AI models for researchers, developers and innovators.
The IndiaAI Mission, approved with an outlay of around Rs 10,372 crore, is aimed at building domestic AI capabilities, supporting innovation and leveraging AI for economic growth and public-service delivery.
The government said the combined expansion of data centre and computing infrastructure, along with the development of indigenous AI capabilities, is intended to build a self-reliant and globally competitive technology ecosystem in India.
