New Delhi, July 29 (IANS) India could require 19–23 GW of operational data centre capacity by 2030, up from about 1.6 GW today, and building that AI infrastructure may need roughly $350–435 billion of cumulative investment by 2030, a report said on Wednesday.
The report from OmniScience Capital said a significant expansion in data centre infrastructure is to be expected as India emerges as one of the world’s largest generators of digital data, accounting for approximately 15-20 per cent of global data generation along with wide spread AI adoption.
Around $160 billion of investments have already been announced or are currently under implementation, highlighting the strong momentum behind India’s emergence as a global AI infrastructure hub.
The report argued that the opportunity extends far beyond data centre developers. Every additional megawatt of AI infrastructure requires a vast non-compute ecosystem comprising electricity generation, transmission, transformers, switchgear, industrial cables, backup power, cooling systems, HVAC, networking, security, building automation and other facility infrastructure.
Collectively, this ecosystem spans 11–12 infrastructure sub-sectors, providing a broad and diversified opportunity to participate in India’s AI infrastructure buildout.
The report estimated that operating 19-23 GW of data centre capacity could require approximately 150-170 TWh of electricity annually by 2030, equivalent to roughly 6 per cent of India’s projected electricity demand and could rise to 8 per cent by 2035.
The ecosystem includes over 230 listed companies across India’s power value chain alone, with additional opportunities emerging across cooling, networking, security and facility infrastructure. This diversified ecosystem provides investors multiple avenues to participate as capital rotates across different phases of the AI infrastructure buildout, the report noted.
“As one of the world’s fastest-growing digital economies, India holds immense potential in AI data centres. While domestic frontier AI model developers and semiconductor players are still emerging, the most direct path to participating in the AI revolution today is through non-compute infrastructure,” said Ashwini Shami, President & Chief Portfolio Manager at OmniScience Capital.
As India’s AI infrastructure scales, companies across utilities, transmission, and electrical equipment will likely emerge as key beneficiaries of this long-term structural trend, Shami added.
—IANS
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