India has around 150 out of 11,000 worldwide, according to Nasscom, highlighting both a large growth opportunity and a competitiveness gap, it said.
Driven by surging data consumption, rapid cloud adoption, and the growing use of AI, India’s data centre capacity is projected to reach about 8 GW by 2030 from about 1.4 GW as of Q2 of 2025, the survey said.
AI data centres are specialised high-performance facilities designed to meet the intensive computational needs of artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning workloads, it said.
Data centres are also double-edged swords as they are very energy-intensive. With emerging hubs such as Malaysia (Johor), Japan, and Vietnam intensifying competition, addressing structural constraints such as energy shortages will be critical for India to position itself as a global AI data centre hub, the survey said.
Some interventions can be relatively straightforward, for instance, recognising data centres and cloud service providers as a distinct category, rather than classifying them as “commercial buildings” under the National Building Code, 2016, which does not account for their specialised design needs, it said,
Additional measures could include releasing more anonymised public data to leverage scalable cloud-based Digital Public Infrastructure while maintaining robust security standards; facilitating visas for key professionals; providing tax clarity for data hosted by foreign entities in India; enabling energy-intensive data centres to access renewable power; and establishing centres of excellence within corporate hubs to strengthen research partnerships with academia, the survey said.
