PE giants eye $20–25 bn bet on India’s digital infra, including data centres, AI cloud by 2030

The next wave of investments is now moving toward AI-driven infrastructure, analysts said.

Global private equity majors are ramping up bets on India’s fast-growing digital infrastructure sector, drawn by stable, data-driven returns as the country pushes toward its $1 trillion digital economy goal by 2030. Investments are pouring into edge data centres, AI-ready hyperscale campuses, and scalable fibre networks, with more than $15 billion already committed and deployed since 2020. Another $20–25 billion is expected by the end of the decade, making India one of the world’s fastest-growing digital infra markets, analysts and industry experts said.

“With India targeting a $1 trillion digital economy by 2030, edge data centers, AI-ready hyperscale campuses, and scalable fiber networks present compelling opportunities for long-term, resilient capital. As a result, private equity (PE) interest in India’s digital infrastructure is accelerating, mirroring global trends toward data-led, yield-generating assets,” Vinish Bawa, TMT head at PwC, told Moneycontrol.

According to PwC, the bulk of recent investments is concentrated in hyperscale data centres, AI-ready campuses, and colocation facilities. Bawa said over $15 billion has already been deployed across data centres, towers, and fibre since 2020, with another $20–25 billion lined up through 2030. “Such moves align with similar global bets across Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America, underscoring growing investor confidence in digital infrastructure as a strategic, future-proof asset class,” he added.

So far, Iron Mountain has committed nearly $320 million between 2021–2025 to acquire and expand Web Werks’ colocation business. Princeton Digital Group unveiled a $1 billion-plus plan for hyperscale facilities in Mumbai and Chennai. AdaniConneX raised $875 million in construction financing, expandable to $1.44 billion, while Brookfield invested $2.5 billion into ATC India’s tower portfolio, strengthening its data infrastructure play.

Carlyle, which put $235 million into Airtel’s data centre arm Nxtra in 2020, is preparing to exit by selling its 24.04% stake for about $600 million — a move analysts say underscores the strong return potential for private equity investors in India’s digital infrastructure space.

Recent announcements have further accelerated the buildout. ST Telemedia Global Data Centres (STT GDC) has unveiled a $3.2 billion+ expansion, including a $400 million AI/HPC campus, while Blackstone and Panchshil are investing about Rs 20,000 crore (~$2.5 billion) into a hyperscale AI campus in Navi Mumbai. CapitaLand (CLINT) is building a 250 MW multi-city portfolio with half already pre-leased, and Sify Technologies has committed Rs 2,500 crore for AI-ready campuses in Chennai along with new capacity across Mumbai, Chennai, and Noida.

The next wave of investments is now moving toward AI-driven infrastructure, analysts said.

Reliance Jio and Tata Communications have separately tied up with NVIDIA to build multi-gigawatt GPU and AI cloud capacity, while Yotta is scaling up its Shakti Cloud platform for compute-intensive workloads. AdaniConneX has outlined a $10 billion multi-GW buildout, and Sify has earmarked $5 billion over five years to create AI-ready hubs and GPU infrastructure in tier-2 and tier-3 cities.

Analysts believe these moves signal a tipping point for India’s digital transformation, with 5G, cloud, and AI converging to spark a gold rush for infrastructure investments.

Neil Shah, vice president at Counterpoint Research, said investors are “planting the seeds now by building out foundational digital infrastructure, such as data centres, mobile towers, and fibre networks.”

“They know that as India's digital economy grows exponentially, the demand for these services will skyrocket. With its billion-strong, tech-savvy population, India is becoming a global investment hub. This foundational infrastructure provides every business and individual with the instant scale needed to build innovative products, services, and content,” he said.

Shah added that companies controlling this infrastructure will be ideally positioned to benefit from years of exponential growth in data consumption and digital activity.