India’s data centre sector has experienced rapid growth, with AI workloads fueling unprecedented demand and Metro hubs like Mumbai solidifying their dominance amid tight vacancy rates and an ambitious build-out pipeline.
India’s data centre industry has moved from an emerging niche to one of the core pillars of the country’s digital economy. Trade Brains reported that live capacity rose from 296 MW in 2016 to 1.6 GW by 2025, a gain driven by cloud adoption, digital services and the rapid rise of AI workloads. The broader market now includes a substantial build-out pipeline, with 322 MW under construction and a further 8.3 GW in longer-term development, underlining how aggressively operators are positioning for future demand.
Mumbai remains the country’s dominant hub and is expected to account for about 47% of live capacity by the end of 2025. Its lead rests on a mix of financial-sector demand, strong fibre networks and subsea cable landings. Trade Brains said the city’s live capacity increased from 96.8 MW in 2016 to 766.6 MW in 2025, while committed and early-stage projects add another 3.7 GW combined. Vacancy is still tight at roughly 6.7%, suggesting that new supply is being absorbed quickly and that the market remains under pressure.
The next tier of growth is increasingly being shaped by Chennai and Hyderabad. According to Trade Brains, Chennai’s live capacity reached 191.5 MW by 2025, supported by a 1,040 MW early-stage pipeline and continuing interest from operators. Hyderabad has expanded even faster, rising from 60.9 MW in 2022 to 151.4 MW in 2025, with about 1.9 GW of committed and early-stage projects in the pipeline. The city is also benefiting from investment tied to GPU-heavy computing, large-scale training systems and liquid cooling, which are becoming more important as AI infrastructure grows.
Bengaluru, Pune and Delhi-NCR are developing as more specialised markets. Trade Brains reported that Bengaluru’s live capacity reached 169.5 MW in 2025, supported by demand from research and development centres and global capability centres. Pune, at 145.3 MW, is drawing enterprises priced out of Mumbai. Delhi-NCR reached 174.5 MW and has seen demand from the BFSI sector and government users; more than half of its colocation lease deals have involved public cloud providers, according to the same report. Kolkata, meanwhile, is still smaller but is emerging as a regional gateway for eastern India, with future growth expected to improve after the new cable landing station at Digha.
The biggest structural shift is the role of AI in driving demand. Trade Brains said AI-related leasing accounted for 78% of total colocation leasing in 2025, compared with 23% in 2024. That aligns with government data released by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, which said around 38,231 GPUs have been onboarded through empanelled service providers under the AI compute framework, offered to eligible users at a subsidised average rate of ₹65 an hour. Separately, Cushman & Wakefield’s India Data Centre H1 2026 Update said the top seven markets added 178 MW in the first half of 2026, taking operational capacity to 1,789 MW, with another 3,860 MW expected by 2030. The next phase of growth will depend less on ambition than on execution: power, cooling, land and connectivity will determine how much of the planned capacity becomes usable infrastructure.
Disclaimer: This content is intended for informational purposes only. Readers are advised to exercise their own judgement, conduct due diligence, or consult a qualified expert before acting on any information provided.
