India's data centres drew $173 billion in commitments since 2021, CBRE says

India's data centre sector has attracted about $173 billion in investment commitments between 2021 and the end of June 2026, according to a report by real estate consultancy CBRE released this week. Around $38 billion of that was committed in the first half of 2026 alone. CBRE said about 130 megawatts (MW) of new data centre capacity went live in India in January to June 2026, and more than 200 MW is expected to come online in the second half of the year, which would take the country's total operational capacity to about 2 gigawatts (GW) by the end of 2026.

Data centres are the physical base of the digital economy: the buildings full of servers that run cloud services, banking apps, streaming, government platforms and, increasingly, artificial intelligence. India's growing internet use and the global race to build AI computing have all pushed companies to plan large facilities here. A $173 billion pipeline puts India among the most sought-after data centre markets in the Asia-Pacific region.

The numbers also show the gap between commitments and delivery. Commitments are promises of future spending, often spread over many years and many phases. Actual capacity grows much more slowly because each project needs land, reliable power, water for cooling and fibre connectivity. CBRE's figures point to roughly 330 MW or more of new capacity in 2026 if the second-half pipeline is delivered, which would be below the roughly 500 MW of fresh supply the consultancy had projected in April. That suggests projects are taking longer to come online than first expected, even as new money keeps arriving.

The AI share is the part to watch. More than 15% of commitments are already linked to AI, and AI facilities are typically more power-hungry than traditional data centres. That raises the stakes for state power utilities and for renewable energy supply, and it is why recent large projects, such as CoreWeave's 240 MW plan at AdaniConneX's Navi Mumbai campus, are measured in hundreds of megawatts rather than tens.

For Indian businesses, more local capacity means cloud and AI services can be hosted closer to users, which can reduce delays for users. For construction, power equipment, cooling and electrical firms, it means a steady order book.

Short-term: More than 200 MW of new capacity is due to go live in the coming months, adding supply for cloud providers and enterprises that need local hosting.

Long-term: If even part of the $173 billion pipeline is built, data centres will become one of India's largest sources of new electricity demand and a major area of infrastructure spending, with AI facilities taking a growing share.

Who is affected: Cloud and AI companies, Indian enterprises moving workloads to local data centres, power utilities and renewable energy developers, and suppliers of construction, cooling and electrical equipment.

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