AirTrunk commits $30B to build 5GW of AI data centers in India

Blackstone-backed data center operator AirTrunk said on Friday it would invest $30 billion in India by 2030, adding to a wave of commitments from technology and infrastructure groups looking to expand computing capacity in the country.

The Australian company said it would develop 5 gigawatts of new data center capacity in India, one of the largest commitments for the South Asian country’s digital infrastructure sector. AirTrunk entered India earlier this year through the acquisition of Lumina CloudInfra.

AirTrunk’s deployment underlines India’s growing appeal as a destination for AI infrastructure, as tech companies and investors seek new geographies to expand computing capacity. The data center capacity in the country is expected to increase According to research firm Bernstein, this could rise to as much as 8 GW in 2030, compared to around 1.5 GW now.

The Indian government has also taken steps to attract investment in AI infrastructure. Earlier this year, New Delhi offered foreign cloud providers tax exemptions through 2047 on services sold abroad if those workloads are run from Indian data centers.

AirTrunk has already started laying the foundation for its expansion in the country. Earlier this week, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said said in a post on X that the western Indian state had exchanged a memorandum of understanding for the allotment of land for the Raigad Pen Growth Center, where AirTrunk is planning a 3GW data center, involving an investment of about ₹2 trillion (about $21 billion). The company already has a development pipeline of around 600 MW in Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.

AirTrunk did not respond to questions about whether the proposed Raigad project would represent the bulk of its planned 5GW capacity, or whether it plans to undertake additional developments elsewhere in India.

The announcement follows a meeting between AirTrunk CEO Robin Khuda and Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a post on X that the planned investment would help strengthen India’s position as a global hub for cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

AirTrunk joins a growing list of companies investing in infrastructure in the country. Amazon, Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Uber have announced major investments in cloud and AI infrastructure, while Indian companies Reliance Industries, Adani Group and TCS have drawn up ambitious plans to expand data center capacity.

However, data centers require enormous amounts of electricity, water and land, and industry executives and analysts have pointed out that resource issues could be a potential bottleneck, especially when it comes to power.

Deloitte estimates Building data centers in the Asia-Pacific region could require tens of terawatt hours of additional electricity by the end of this decade.

AirTrunk’s investment thesis is backed by government support, a deep pool of engineering talent and access to renewable energy, Khuda said.