AirTrunk unveils $30bn India data centre push

BENGALURU: Australian data centre operator AirTrunk has committed $30 billion to develop 5 gigawatts (GW) of data centre capacity in India by 2030, marking one of the largest investments in the country's digital infrastructure sector and positioning India as a key hub for global AI and cloud infrastructure spending.

The investment is expected to significantly bolster India's AI ambitions as govts and companies worldwide race to build the next generation of AI and cloud infrastructure.

AirTrunk, backed by Blackstone and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), entered India earlier this year by acquiring Lumina CloudInfra. The deal brought a 600-megawatt development pipeline across Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad, giving the company a strategic foothold in one of the world's fastest-growing data centre markets.

"Capital is mobile, and India is creating the conditions for it to thrive," said AirTrunk founder and CEO Robin Khuda. "India is taking a top-down approach to AI with clear govt-led initiatives, a world-class talent pool and massive availability of renewable energy. We heard a clear message that India is open for investment and determined to compete for the next generation of AI and cloud infrastructure that will transform India's industries and economy for generations to come."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the investment will strengthen India's position as a global hub for cloud computing and artificial intelligence. "Such investments will strengthen India's position as a global hub for cloud computing and AI, while generating employment opportunities, supporting local supply chains and accelerating innovation-led growth," Modi said in a post on X.

Tarun Pathak, research director at technology research firm Counterpoint Research, said the investment validates India's growing importance in the global AI infrastructure landscape. "This strongly validates India's ability to attract the next wave of AI infrastructure spending. AI workloads require unprecedented levels of compute, power and policy support, and India is steadily building the foundations for that," he said.

Pathak added that India currently accounts for only about 3% of global data centre capacity, but that footprint could expand nearly tenfold by 2030, driven by surging demand for AI and cloud services. "India is increasingly being viewed as a safe harbour for digital infrastructure investments amid geopolitical uncertainties," he said.

The AirTrunk announcement comes amid a wave of large-scale AI and data centre investments in India. Earlier this year, the Adani Group unveiled plans to invest $100 billion in renewable energy-powered, hyperscale AI-ready data centres by 2035. The conglomerate said the initiative could catalyse an additional $150 billion of investments across server manufacturing, electrical infrastructure, sovereign cloud platforms and related sectors, creating a $250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem over the next decade.


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