CapitaLand unveils Rs 1,940 crore, 53 MW data centre in Chennai's Ambattur

Singapore's CapitaLand Investment has unveiled a new data centre in Chennai, with a planned investment of about Rs 1,940 crore. CapitaLand Data Centre Chennai 01, in the Ambattur area of the city, was unveiled on Thursday, October 15, 2026, by Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister C. Joseph Vijay. The facility will have 53 MW of gross power capacity when completed, which is targeted for the end of 2026, including 34 MW of IT power capacity across 13 data halls, supported by its own 110 kV electrical substation. It is jointly held by CapitaLand India Trust (CLINT) and the CapitaLand India Data Centre Fund. The project is part of a wider rush of investment into data centres in India, a sector that property consultancy CBRE says has drawn about $173 billion in investment commitments since 2021.

Data centres are the factories of the digital economy. Every online payment, streaming video, government portal and AI tool runs on servers housed in large, power-hungry buildings like this one. As India's use of digital services grows, and as companies begin to run more artificial intelligence workloads, demand for such capacity is rising, and investors from around the world are putting money into building it.

The numbers show the scale. According to CBRE, India's data centre sector has attracted about $173 billion in investment commitments since 2021, with about $38 billion committed in the first half of 2026 alone. The presence of Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister at the unveiling also points to the close business ties between Singapore and Tamil Nadu.

For businesses, more local capacity means more choice of where to host their data and services inside the country. For the state, projects like this bring construction work, technical jobs and new demand for power.

The power figures are the key measure. Of the 53 MW of gross capacity, the 34 MW of IT power is the share set aside for running customers' servers.

Short-term: Work continues to complete the facility by the end of 2026, after which CapitaLand will look to sign up customers for the space.

Long-term: The project adds to Chennai's standing as a data centre hub and to the growing pool of capacity that Indian companies will need for cloud and AI services. Power supply, especially from cleaner sources, will be a growing concern as more such centres come up.

Who is affected: Companies needing data storage and computing in India, cloud and AI service providers, Tamil Nadu's power utilities and planners, construction and engineering firms, and unitholders of CapitaLand India Trust.

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