Mumbai Emerges as India’s Data Centre Capital: Knight Frank

22 Sep 2025 CW Team

Knight Frank’s latest report highlights Mumbai’s dominance in India’s data centre landscape. In H1 2025, the city’s capacity grew 14.3 per cent to surpass 4GW, with 591MW operational, 185MW under construction, and 3.2GW in the pipeline. This follows India surpassing 10GW of total data centre capacity in H2 2024.

Demand is being driven by rapid cloud adoption, data localisation mandates, and growth in local fintech and BFSI firms. Mumbai recorded 97.6MW of take-up in the past six months, resulting in a tight vacancy rate of 5.4 per cent, compared to India’s overall colocation vacancy of 12.3 per cent. Notably, two-thirds of Mumbai’s capacity under construction is already pre-leased.

Despite this growth, hyperscale deployments remain limited. Only three live sites currently support >2.5MW, with just one site offering more than 10MW. Most available capacity is fragmented across smaller sites: ten sites provide <1MW, five sites fall in the 1–2MW range, and three sites offer >3MW.

This fragmented landscape is creating opportunities for global players and joint ventures to establish high-capacity facilities. Examples include the 500MW NAV2 campus by NTT and the 500MW AI facility by Blackstone-Panchshil Realty.

Alternative markets are also emerging for hyperscale requirements. Hyderabad is positioning itself as a hyperscale-first city, with over 500MW of capacity in the pipeline. STT GDC India is developing a 100MW campus under an MoU with the Telangana government, while NTT plans a 400MW AI-focused campus with an investment of INR 10,500 crore (approximately USD 1.25 billion). Hyderabad now ranks as India’s second-largest data centre market with 2.1GW, followed by Chennai (1.6GW), New Delhi (712MW), and Bengaluru (307MW).

Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India, said, “Mumbai has firmly established itself as the epicentre of India’s digital infrastructure growth. With over 3GW of capacity in the pipeline and strong policy support for green data centre parks, the city is attracting sustained global investment. As cloud adoption and AI workloads accelerate, Mumbai’s robust subsea cable connectivity, scalable power infrastructure, proximity to enterprise hubs, and progressive state policies consolidate its position as India’s data centre capital. While other metros like Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru are gaining traction, none match Mumbai’s scale, speed, and ability to serve as South Asia’s gateway for cloud, AI, and enterprise workloads.”

Mumbai has solidified its position as India’s leading data centre hub, accounting for 40 per cent of the country’s total capacity and 44 per cent of live IT capacity, according to Knight Frank’s Asia-Pacific Data Centres 2025 report. The city continues to attract strong demand from cloud, fintech, and BFSI sectors, supported by robust infrastructure and policy frameworks.Knight Frank’s latest report highlights Mumbai’s dominance in India’s data centre landscape. In H1 2025, the city’s capacity grew 14.3 per cent to surpass 4GW, with 591MW operational, 185MW under construction, and 3.2GW in the pipeline. This follows India surpassing 10GW of total data centre capacity in H2 2024.Demand is being driven by rapid cloud adoption, data localisation mandates, and growth in local fintech and BFSI firms. Mumbai recorded 97.6MW of take-up in the past six months, resulting in a tight vacancy rate of 5.4 per cent, compared to India’s overall colocation vacancy of 12.3 per cent. Notably, two-thirds of Mumbai’s capacity under construction is already pre-leased.Despite this growth, hyperscale deployments remain limited. Only three live sites currently support >2.5MW, with just one site offering more than 10MW. Most available capacity is fragmented across smaller sites: ten sites provide <1MW, five sites fall in the 1–2MW range, and three sites offer >3MW.This fragmented landscape is creating opportunities for global players and joint ventures to establish high-capacity facilities. Examples include the 500MW NAV2 campus by NTT and the 500MW AI facility by Blackstone-Panchshil Realty.Alternative markets are also emerging for hyperscale requirements. Hyderabad is positioning itself as a hyperscale-first city, with over 500MW of capacity in the pipeline. STT GDC India is developing a 100MW campus under an MoU with the Telangana government, while NTT plans a 400MW AI-focused campus with an investment of INR 10,500 crore (approximately USD 1.25 billion). Hyderabad now ranks as India’s second-largest data centre market with 2.1GW, followed by Chennai (1.6GW), New Delhi (712MW), and Bengaluru (307MW).Shishir Baijal, Chairman and Managing Director, Knight Frank India, said, “Mumbai has firmly established itself as the epicentre of India’s digital infrastructure growth. With over 3GW of capacity in the pipeline and strong policy support for green data centre parks, the city is attracting sustained global investment. As cloud adoption and AI workloads accelerate, Mumbai’s robust subsea cable connectivity, scalable power infrastructure, proximity to enterprise hubs, and progressive state policies consolidate its position as India’s data centre capital. While other metros like Chennai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru are gaining traction, none match Mumbai’s scale, speed, and ability to serve as South Asia’s gateway for cloud, AI, and enterprise workloads.”

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