Data Center: Airtel, Reliance, Adani, and Tata to invest $50 billion, domestic capacity to reach 9 GW

Domestic corporates are preparing to fully enter the data center industry. From Tata and Reliance to Adani and Airtel, they plan to invest a massive $50 billion in this sector over five to seven years. This will increase the current capacity from 1 GW to 9 GW during this period.

All these companies are doubling down on the country’s data center boom, which will accelerate AI and cloud development over the next decade. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is a new entrant in this sector. It has formed a multi-billion dollar joint venture with private equity firm TPG. This is a 1.2 GW platform with a capacity equivalent to the combined capacity of all existing data centers in the country.

According to JLL, investments in India will reach $35 to $50 billion over five to seven years. This surge comes at a time when data consumption in the country is projected to increase from 8 exabytes in 2016-17 to 229 exabytes in 2024-25. One exabyte equals one billion gigabytes. Jefferies estimates that capacity will reach 8 gigawatts by 2030, requiring an investment of $30 billion.

3 companies hold 40% share

Jefferies said Airtel, Reliance, and AdaniConnex together will account for 35 to 40 percent of data center capacity by 2030. Crisil expects companies to invest ₹55,000-60,000 crore between 2026-27 and 2027-28, leading to a capacity of 2.3-2.5 gigawatts.

India among the world’s competitive markets

Due to growing data demand, India is increasingly becoming one of the most competitive data center markets. India generates 20 percent of the world’s data, but stores only 3 percent domestically. As one of the countries with the highest wireless internet consumption, India has become a major engine of data generation.

Increasing partnerships with foreign companies

Investment by four major companies

Reliance Rs 98,000 crore

Adani Rs 1.33 lakh crore

TCS Rs 18,000 crore

Airtel Rs 6,000 crore