Why AI will redefine India’s data center playbook

By CR Srinivasan, CEO, Digital Connexion

India’s next phase of digital growth will not be defined by how much infrastructure we build, but by what that infrastructure is capable of. 2026 will be the year when data centers will move from being a capacity engine for cloud adoption to becoming the backbone of India’s AI economy.

With the AI market projected to exceed USD 9 billion by 2028, and with India’s data center market set to add 220 MW in 2026, reaching approximately 1.7 GW, the infrastructure that powered India’s cloud-first decade will not be sufficient. Enterprises across banking, healthcare, and manufacturing are already shifting AI from experimentation to production. This is not a marginal change, it is a structural one. It is redefining expectations around compute density, latency, resilience, sustainability, and regulatory readiness.

The industry’s defining challenge will not be ...