Low-cost India seen as potential regional hub in data centre boom

Indian telecom giant Airtel is planning to double the capacity of its data centre business in less than three years, as growing domestic internet consumption and increasing artificial intelligence adoption drive unprecedented growth. Ashish Arora, chief executive of Airtel subsidiary Nxtra, the domestic leader in data centres, told the Financial Times it would invest about $600mn in its latest round of expansion to achieve nearly 400 megawatts in capacity by the end of 2027. It was also gearing up for further growth over the next five to seven years, he said, aiming to be the number one or two player. Data centre owners use megawatts as a measure of size, describing their capacity or the amount of power their facilities can draw from the grid, and also for how they charge companies, based on how much power their dedicated servers use. Leading Indian conglomerates have been placing large bets on a domestic industry that recorded $1.2bn in revenues in 2024 and has been growing at more th

Indian telecom giant Airtel is planning to double the capacity of its data centre business in less than three years, as growing domestic internet consumption and increasing artificial intelligence adoption drive unprecedented growth. Ashish Arora, chief executive of Airtel subsidiary Nxtra, the domestic leader in data centres, told the Financial Times it would invest about $600mn in its latest round of expansion to achieve nearly 400 megawatts in capacity by the end of 2027. It was also gearing up for further growth over the next five to seven years, he said, aiming to be the number one or two