Driven by the surge in data usage by consumers and increased industry investments in cloud and storage, India’s data centre capacity will double in the next three years, according to a CRISIL analysis.
Presently at above 950MW capacity, India’s data centre capture could go above 2GW by the financial year 2027, it said.
Further, the rising penetration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) will drive the demand over the medium term. For example, an average chatGPT query needs 10 times the electricity as compared to a ‘conventional’ Google search.
The findings are from a CRISIL Ratings analysis of industry players, representing 85 per cent of the market share by operational capacity,
Data centres cater to the computing and storage infrastructure demand, which is driven by businesses shifting data to digital platforms, including the cloud, as well as increased accessibility of high-speed data that has led to a surge in internet usage, including social media and over-the-top (OTT) streaming platforms.
Additionally, the rapid advancement of GenAI requires higher computational power and lower latency than traditional cloud computing functions, thereby increasing data centre demand.
CRISIL senior director Manish Gupta said this would require additional investment to the tune of Rs 65,000 crore over the coming three years.
The capacity additions are driven by expansion plans of the existing players as well as the entry of new players.
