Led by increasing digitalisation as organisations increase their investments in cloud storage, India’s data centre capacity is set to more than double to 2-2.3 GW by 2026-27, a December 23 report by Crisil Ratings said.
To support the strong demand, the incremental capital expenditure would be supported by a higher proportion of debt funding, which will result in a moderate increase in debt levels, it said.
Further, the report stated that the rising penetration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) will drive the demand over the medium term.
Also Read: India needs an extra 1.7-3.6 GW data centre capacity by 2028 due to high demand
Data centres cater to the computing and storage infrastructure demand as enterprises rapidly shift their businesses to digital platforms, including cloud, a trend that has accelerated post-COVID-19 pandemic, it said.
The other major factor is that increased accessibility of high-speed data has led to a surge in internet usage, including social media, over-the-top (OTT) platforms and digital payments, it added.
Notably, mobile data traffic logged a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 25 per cent over the last five fiscals, standing at 24 GB per month at end-fiscal 2024, and is expected to rise to 33-35 GB by FY26, the Crisil Ratings report said.
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Investment of โน55,000-65,000 crore
In addition to the ongoing demand, it said that the rapid advancement of GenAI, which requires higher computational power and lower latency than traditional cloud computing functions, will also provide a tailwind to the data centre demand in India.
The report added that to meet the growing data centre demand, an investment of โน55,000-65,000 crore is required over the next three fiscals, primarily towards land and building, power equipment and cooling solutions.
“Data centre operators typically build infrastructure – land and building, which account for 25-30 per cent of overall capex – with the expectation of future tie-ups,” Crisil Ratings Senior Director and Deputy Chief Ratings Officer Manish Gupta said.
The capacity additions are driven by expansion plans of existing players as well as the entry of new players, said the report.
Once capacities are tied up, data centres benefit from predictable cash flows backed by a stable client base resulting in low churn rates. The report added that this is due to high switching costs for customers on account of their investments and possible business disruptions when switching.
“Amid significant capex plans for expansion, the debt-to-earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) ratio of data centre operators is expected to increase to 5.4x this fiscal from 5x last fiscal, before improving from next fiscal as capacity utilisation ramps up,” Crisil Ratings Director Anand Kulkarni said.
