Mumbai, Sept. 2 -- Anarock Capital projects India's data centre footprint will reach 101 million (mn) square feet by 2030, nearly four times the 27 million (mn) recorded in H1 2026. The firm attributed the expansion to rising digital consumption, accelerated cloud adoption and growing artificial intelligence workloads, supported by more than USD 300 billion (bn) in investment commitments. Operational IT capacity is forecast to increase from one point eight gigawatt (GW) currently to six point seven GW by 2030, while operational centres may rise from 164 to 210.
The report estimated AI workloads could account for around 70 per cent of demand by 2030 and observed that such applications need substantially greater computing power, storage and electricity than conventional workloads. It noted AI deployments often have power density requirements 10-20 times those of traditional servers, elevating demand for power infrastructure, advanced cooling and specialised facilities. The analysis identified a development pipeline exceeding 4.9 GW of planned IT capacity for 2026-30 across multiple cities.
India's expanding digital user base underpins the demand, with more than 950 million internet users in H1 2026, including over 880 million mobile users, and national data consumption above 25 TB per second. Mumbai-MMR remained the largest market, with 54 operational centres, 812 megawatt (MW) of IT capacity and 11.6 million (mn) square feet of occupied area as of H1 2026. Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru and Hyderabad were identified as other major hubs, while Pune and emerging locations feature in the pipeline.
Future development was said to depend on access to land, reliable power and high-speed connectivity, and the sector's infrastructure status has improved access to financing with rates around 9.5-10.5 per cent for tenures up to 12 years. A proposed tax holiday through 2047 for eligible global cloud service providers could further encourage investment. The report concluded that data centres sit at the intersection of real estate, technology and infrastructure and will require large land parcels, substantial power capacity and robust operational resilience.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Construction World.