India emerges as top APAC data centre hub, set to cross 3 GW by 2028

India is becoming a leading data centre market in APAC, says a CBRE report. The country's low development bottlenecks, rising demand from hyperscalers and AI, and policy support are driving this growth, with capacity expected to cross 3 GW by 2028.

India is rapidly emerging as one of the most attractive data centre markets in the Asia-Pacific region, helped by lower power, cost and labour constraints compared to other major economies, according to a report by CBRE.

The trend is expected to accelerate India's digital infrastructure growth, with the country's total data centre stock likely to cross 3 GW by the end of 2028.

Favourable Development Environment

The report highlights that India is now being viewed as a preferred destination for large-scale data centre investments at a time when several APAC markets are struggling with power shortages, rising construction costs and environmental restrictions. India was the only major APAC market to receive a "Low" rating across all development bottleneck parameters in CBRE's scorecard, covering power constraints, construction costs, skilled labour shortages and environmental risks.

The shift is being driven by rising demand from hyperscalers, artificial intelligence workloads, Neocloud operators, Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and enterprise users. India's live data centre capacity stood at around 1,700 MW at the end of 2025, with nearly 500 MW expected to be added in 2026 alone.

Anshuman Magazine, Chairman and CEO for India, CBRE, said, "The combination of a low-bottleneck development environment, a rapidly expanding digital economy, and aggressive hyperscaler commitments positions India as one of the most compelling DC markets globally."

Market Breakdown: From Metros to Tier-II Cities

The report noted that Mumbai continues to lead India's data centre capacity with over 800 MW, while Chennai, Hyderabad and Delhi NCR are emerging as major hyperscale destinations. Bengaluru remains a key enterprise colocation hub. At the same time, smaller cities are also entering the data centre map. Edge-style facilities are coming up in Jaipur, Ahmedabad and Lucknow, while demand for containerised data centres is rising.

Ada Choi, Head of Asia Pacific Research at CBRE, said India's "cost competitiveness, policy support and scalability" are strengthening investor confidence in the country's data centre sector. (ANI)

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