Data centre capacity to more than double by FY27 says CRISIL

Data centre capacity is expected to more than double to 2-2.3 GW by fiscal 2027, CRISIL Ratings said in a study. 

This will be due to increasing digitalisation of the economy and enterprises putting more investments in cloud storage and consumers set to demand more data for usage. 

Further, rising penetration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) will drive the demand over the medium term, the rating agency said.

Manish Gupta, Senior Director and Deputy Chief Ratings Officer, CRISIL Ratings Ltd, “To meet the growing data centre demand, an investment of ₹55,000-65,000 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% of overall capex – with the expectation of future tie-ups. While this approach may expose incremental capacities to utilisation risks, strong demand is expected to support capacity utilisation to reach 80-90% within a year or two,” he added.