Mumbai ranks 15th globally in operational data centre capacity, while Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru and emerging Tier-II hubs position India for the next phase of digital infrastructure growth.
India’s data centre market is strengthening its position on the global stage, with Mumbai emerging as the country’s largest hub and new destinations gaining traction as demand for cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure accelerates.
Mumbai currently has around 774 MW of operational IT capacity and nearly 5 GW of data centre capacity in the development pipeline, according to Knight Frank’s Global Data Centre Atlas 2026.
The scale of the expansion has pushed Mumbai to 15th place globally in operational data centre capacity and 11th in terms of its development pipeline, underscoring India’s growing importance in the global digital infrastructure landscape.
While Mumbai remains India’s primary international connectivity hub, the country’s data centre ecosystem is becoming increasingly diversified, with Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Pune and the National Capital Region emerging as significant markets.
Tier-II locations such as Visakhapatnam and Jamnagar are also beginning to attract attention as potential greenfield data centre destinations, supported by government initiatives and planned subsea cable connectivity.
Hyderabad, in particular, has emerged as a preferred destination for hyperscale cloud providers. The availability of large development parcels, supportive government policies, a growing technology ecosystem and relatively competitive operating costs have helped the city attract large-scale projects.
More from BusinessBengaluru, meanwhile, continues to benefit from demand generated by Global Capability Centres (GCCs), research and development facilities and enterprise colocation services.
Pune and NCR are also witnessing rapid expansion as banking, financial services and insurance companies and public cloud providers seek cost-effective data centre capacity.
Chennai has strengthened its position as another important gateway market, particularly for internet traffic connecting India with Southeast Asia. Competitive power tariffs and a supportive policy environment have added to the city’s appeal.
India’s emergence comes as the global data centre industry undergoes rapid expansion, fuelled by cloud adoption, digitalisation and increasingly computing-intensive AI workloads. Mature North American markets continue to dominate operational capacity globally, alongside established data centre hubs such as Tokyo, London, Dublin, Singapore and Johor.
Despite its rapid growth, India’s data centre industry remains at a relatively early stage compared with the world’s largest markets, leaving considerable room for additional investment and capacity creation.
However, sustaining the next leg of growth will depend increasingly on India’s ability to address infrastructure constraints.
Timely availability of power, expansion of transmission infrastructure, faster regulatory approvals, stronger fibre connectivity and access to sustainable energy will be critical as developers build increasingly large data centre campuses.
The emergence of AI is expected to make these requirements even more significant, as AI-focused data centres typically require substantial computing power and energy infrastructure.
The development of larger campus-scale facilities capable of supporting AI workloads could therefore become an important driver of India’s next phase of data centre investment.
With Mumbai already establishing itself among the world’s major data centre locations and capacity expanding across both established and emerging Indian cities, the sector is positioned to become an increasingly important component of the country’s digital infrastructure story.
