India’s data centre boom still in its early stages: Yotta’s Sunil Gupta

In the next five years, India's data centre capacity is set to soar from its current 1 gigawatt to an impressive 6 to 8 gigawatts. This growth is fueled by the increasing adoption of cloud technology, the rise of AI workloads, and significant investments from both international and domestic entities, according to Sunil Gupta, co-founder and CEO of Yotta. During a recent discussion at the IAMAI Digital India Summit 2026, Gupta highlighted that while India lags behind global leaders like the United States, its current data centre capacity is modest compared to its vast population of 1.4 billion. With the US boasting a capacity of 17 gigawatts for a population of about 350 million, Gupta pointed out that the US has nearly 50 times more data centre power than India. The disparity becomes even more apparent when considering data generation. Despite accounting for nearly 20% of global data consumption, India only possesses around 3% of the world's data centre capacity. Much of the country’s social media and digital data is stored overseas, a situation that both policymakers and industry leaders are eager to rectify. This urgency was reflected at the IAMAI summit, where the India Internet Report was launched, indicating that the nation surpassed 950 million internet users in 2025, with significant growth emerging from rural areas. As millions more users come online and digital services expand, the demand for local computing, storage, and AI infrastructure is expected to surge. The focus is shifting from merely increasing capacity to building sovereign cloud and GPU infrastructure. Although India is just beginning to develop large-scale GPU capabilities—still trailing behind the US and China—there is an expectation that millions of GPUs will be necessary to support AI-driven growth. Gupta emphasized the importance of policy support, advocating for increased public investment, tax incentives, and infrastructure-like benefits for data centres. "This is not just about digital infrastructure; it is essential for the foundation of India’s digital economy," Gupta stated. The combination of rising internet penetration, AI advancements, and concerns over data sovereignty suggests that India's data centre market could expand six to eight times in the upcoming five to eight years.