India’s data centre sector is witnessing a phase of rapid expansion, driven by rising enterprise demand, hyperscale requirements and the growing relevance of distributed infrastructure. With increasing data consumption and the emergence of AI-led workloads, operators are recalibrating their strategies to address evolving capacity, location and performance needs. In this context, data centre players are adopting differentiated approaches, spanning enterprise-led growth, hyperscale-focused expansion and the development of edge ecosystems. At tele.net’s 9th Annual Conference on Data Centres in India, held in Mumbai in April 2026, Debmalya Dey Roy, Chief Revenue Officer, Pi Data Centers; and Prasad Tilve, Vice President, CapitaLand Investment, highlighted the journeys of their respective organisations, how they are aligning infrastructure expansion with changing customer requirements, technological shifts and long-term environmental, social and governance (ESG) priorities, and growth strategies. Key takeaways from their addresses…

Debmalya Dey Roy

Pi Data Centers’ journey in India reflects a steady progression alongside the evolution of the broader data centre industry. Entering its twelfth year of operations, the company began in 2014, with its first hyperscale data centre, around 60 MW capacity, going live in 2016-17 in Amaravati, Vijayawada, in the capital of Andhra Pradesh. This facility continues to serve as the core hub of its operations. The company later expanded to Kochi, along with establishing cloud zone presences in Mumbai and Hyderabad, supported by a full stack offering spanning collocation, private cloud, multi-cloud support, managed services and AI capabilities. AI, in particular, is now central to strategic decision-making, with most new initiatives being aligned to support AI-driven demand.

Over the past 12 years, this journey has been one of constant evaluation, evolving in parallel with the industry. The pace of change has been particularly pronounced over the past two years, which have been significantly more dynamic than earlier phases.

A strong enterprise focus has defined this journey. The company supports a wide spectrum of customers, including state data centres, large e-commerce platforms, and a significant number of banks, along with enterprises across IT, IT-enabled services and manufacturing. It also hosts large enterprise resource planning portfolios across its data centre and cloud infrastructure. Over time, this has expanded into multi-cloud capabilities and, in the past two to three years, a clear foray into the AI space.

The company’s growth strategy has been anchored in deep engagement with Indian enterprises. This has shaped its go-to-market approach, organisational DNA and service positioning. At present, it serves close to 700 enterprise customers, ranging from mid-sized organisations to some of the largest enterprises in India, across colocation and private cloud platforms. This enterprise-centric approach has remained consistent since inception and continues to be the core around which other capabilities have been built.

A defining aspect of the company’s strategy has been its origin in a Tier II city, Vijayawada, rather than traditional data centre hubs such as Mumbai, Delhi or Bengaluru. This was a disruptive move. Today, it aligns with the broader industry and policy narrative, emphasising the role of Tier II and Tier III cities in driving the next phase of digital growth.

Expansion plans reflect a mix of metro and non-metro strategies. Recently Pi Data Centers announced the launch of its 3 MW Mumbai data center, followed by 3 MW Hyderabad data center within 2026 as part of its 23 MW near-term expansion roadmap. There is also a strong pipeline of edge data centres planned across key Tier II and Tier III locations. This is based on the understanding that a large share of India’s user base resides in these regions, making proximity critical for service delivery.

Pi Data Centers is emerging as a key enabler of India’s AI-driven digital economy by building hyperscale, AI-ready infrastructure that supports enterprises, cloud providers, and next-gen applications. It is not just hosting data, but powering the compute backbone of India’s AI revolution, enabling innovation, digital sovereignty, and enterprise transformation at scale.

The infrastructure approach follows a hub-and-spoke model, where hyperscale facilities act as central hubs, feeding into distributed edge locations. This creates a mesh that enables wider presence and improved access closer to end-users.

Sustainability has become a business-critical priority rather than an optional consideration. While discussions around sustainability have existed for years, its importance has now intensified, both from an operational and strategic standpoint. The approach to renewable energy is also evolving. Beyond solar, there is increasing focus on wind energy and emerging options such as modular nuclear energy. This reflects a broader shift in how energy sourcing is being viewed within the industry.

The company has provisioned for at least 30 per cent of its capacity to be supported by renewable energy at its Amaravati hyperscale facility. Similar targets, ranging between 25 and 30 per cent, are being factored into future expansion plans across locations. These considerations are now embedded in core planning and board-level discussions.

Looking ahead, the company’s priorities remain closely aligned with its core operating principles. Customer satisfaction continues to be the foremost focus. Deepening engagement with Indian enterprises is another key area, particularly in light of increasing demand and compliance requirements around data sovereignty. This remains a foundational aspect of the company’s positioning.

In parallel, the evolving geopolitical environment is expected to drive increased global demand towards India. This is seen as a significant opportunity for domestic data centre operators. Finally, expanding infrastructure closer to end-users through edge deployments remains a critical priority. This is especially relevant in the context of AI workloads, where proximity and distributed architecture are becoming increasingly important.

Prasad Tilve

CapitaLand’s journey in India’s data centre market has been marked by a structured and focused expansion strategy. A Singapore-headquartered and listed entity, the company has a global presence across 70 countries, 270 cities and over 2,700 properties, with its data centre business dating back to 2005. Today, it operates a platform of nearly 1 GW across Asia-Pacific and Europe.

In India, operations commenced during 2020-21 with four data centres across Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai. Among these, the Mumbai facility is already operational and fully occupied by a large hyperscale customer.

A defining aspect of the company’s India strategy has been its simultaneous roll-out across four major metros. This approach stands out in the domestic data centre landscape, where such parallel expansion across Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore has not been commonly observed.

The strategy has been anchored in building a strong “core” before moving towards edge deployments. With a background as a real estate investment manager combined with domain expertise in data centres, the company has focused on hyperscalers as primary customers. Approximately 70 per cent of its revenue is derived from hyperscalers, while the remaining 30 per cent comes from enterprise clients.

This core-first approach is expected to extend towards edge locations over time, with expansion aligned closely to customer demand and the growth of availability zones beyond existing metro clusters.

Operational capabilities have also evolved alongside this expansion. The Mumbai data centre has recently achieved a significant milestone with the commissioning of a liquid cooling floor, and the entire building has been successfully handed over for liquid cooling deployment.

The facilities are already managing rack densities of around 200 kW, reflecting readiness to handle high-density workloads. This development is seen as an important step for the broader industry, reinforcing confidence among hyperscalers regarding the ability of Indian data centres to support advanced and high-performance computing requirements.

Sustainability remains central to CapitaLand’s operational philosophy, forming a core element of its global strategy. With a large and diversified property portfolio, the company places ESG considerations at the forefront of its operations.  In the Indian data centre context, this translates into a three-pillar approach comprising green power, green operations and green projects. Efforts include the use of low-carbon materials such as steel and cement, the adoption of less polluting gases, and the use of non-polluting liquids wherever feasible.

Renewable energy sourcing is a key focus area. In Mumbai, 70 MW of renewable power has already been secured for one tower, with an additional 80 MW planned for another. Across the two buildings, this is expected to translate into approximately 46-50 per cent green power usage.

These measures are closely linked to contractual arrangements with customers, particularly hyperscalers, where higher levels of green power provisioning are incorporated into agreements.

Looking ahead, the organisation has identified three key priorities that will guide its operations. Customer satisfaction remains the foremost focus, followed by operational excellence and ESG and sustainability.