APAC Data Centre Update: H2 2024

MUMBAI ASIA PACIFIC PRIMARY MARKET

POWAI

KEY INDICATORS*

542MW In Operation

17 / 48 Operators / Data Centres

THANE BELAPUR ROAD

335MW / 888MW UC / Planned

6% Colo Vacancy

Colo Hyperscale Cloud Telco

PANVEL

MARKET OVERVIEW Mumbai is not only the largest data centre market in India but also ranks among the top five in the Asia Pacific region (excluding Mainland China). Both colocation operators and hyperscale cloud service providers (CSPs) have continued to expand aggressively over the past year. Extensive land acquisitions in recent years have prompted operators to explore new locations within Mumbai. While Thane saw its first land parcel acquisition for data centres in 2022, the same hyperscaler acquired another parcel in Palava in December 2024. These emerging locations offer suitable infrastructure for data centre development and may attract other operators for future expansions. Beyond the 1.2GW currently in the development pipeline, secured land parcels held by operators could potentially add another 2GW of capacity in Mumbai if fully developed. The city continues to be a preferred destination for data centre investments due to its excellent subsea cable connectivity, status as India’s financial capital, and well-established infrastructure. Investment in cloud infrastructure has also gained momentum. AWS recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) committing $8.3B toward developing its AWS Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region. Microsoft has announced plans to invest $3B to expand AI and cloud computing capabilities in India, while Airtel Business is working with Google to develop a sovereign AI cloud offering tailored for government organizations. The latter half of 2024 has seen a surge in AI-related investments. Nvidia disclosed that major Indian conglomerates, including Reliance, Mahindra, Tata Communications, Infosys, and Wipro, have either placed or are in the process of placing orders for Nvidia H100 GPUs, which will be deployed for AI-driven workloads. In line with its goal of achieving 100% renewable energy-powered data centres, CtrlS announced the completion of a 125MW captive solar farm in Nagpur, which will supply up to 60% of the energy required for the campus.

ECOSYSTEM DEVELOPMENTS • Bharti Airtel is working on a sovereign AI cloud offering with Google to be launched in 2025. The offering is expected to combine hyperscale capabilities including AI services and tailored for Indian government organizations. • Colt Data Centre Services and RMZ formed a 50:50 joint venture to invest US$1.7B in the Indian data centre market. Colt has existing developments in Navi Mumbai and Chennai. • Equinix signed a power purchase agreement (PPA) in India with CleanMax and will partner to construct a 33MW captive renewable power plant in Maharashtra. The plant will consist of 26.4MW of solar and 6.6MW of onshore wind power. The plant is expected to commence operations in 2025 and will provide power to Equinix’s data centres in Mumbai. • The Maharashtra state government approved the establishment of a new Green Integrated Data Centre Parks that will operate on 100% renewable energy. The Green Integrated Data Centre Parks project plans to build three data centre parks in greater Mumbai region having a total IT load of at least 500MW each. The government will also provide special incentives for setting up these Green Integrated Data Centre Parks. • The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) plans to offer cloud storage services for financial institutions in India. The pilot phase of the program is expected to commence in 2025. • Rustomjee , a real estate development company, has announced its interest to develop data centres in Mumbai. The developer has an existing township in the Thane region of greater Mumbai. The data centre is expected to be located within this township.

CUSHMAN & WAKEFIELD | ASIA PACIFIC DATA CENTRE MARKET OVERVIEW