India’s commercial capital, home to all the financial regulators, stock exchanges and four out of five biggest companies making up the Nifty 50 leaderboard, will continue to lead the country’s data-center business due to its power infrastructure, subsea cable connectivity and enterprise concentration, top technology entrepreneurs told ET.
“Mumbai is the data centre capital of India. Nearly 50% of India’s data centre capacity is here,” said Sharad Sanghi, founder and CEO of Neysa AI. “The next wave of AI adoption will be enterprise-led, and Mumbai is where those enterprises are headquartered.”
Sanghi spoke with ET ahead of the Tech Entrepreneurs Association of Mumbai’s (TEAM) two-day event starting Friday. Others joining the discussions on subjects ranging from AI and jobs were Aakrit Vaish, cofounder of Activate, an early-stage AI fund, and Naiyya Saggi, founder of Babychakra and new-age appliance maker EDT.
Launched in 2022 by Dream Sports founder Harsh Jain and Vaish to stem the outflow of tech talent from Mumbai, TEAM has grown from 26 members to nearly 100 startup founders and operators across sectors.
According to a report by financial services company Avendus, the data centre sector has seen $5 billion in transaction activity over the last three years, backed by global institutional investors, infrastructure funds, and strategic operators, with three to four IPOs expected in the next three years.
AI-led infrastructure demand could drive the deployment of 650,000 to 700,000 GPUs in India’s data centres over the next five years, unlocking a $23 billion investment opportunity.
Yet, even as the infrastructure story gathers momentum, India’s broader AI ambitions face a more sobering reality.
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