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Informist, Tuesday, Jun. 24, 2025

NEW DELHI - India is set to be one of the biggest gainers from investments in data centres across Asia-Pacific, UK-based bank Barclays said in a report Tuesday. India can potentially receive around $19 billion annually in data centre investments by 2030, higher than the $12 billion it received in 2024, Barclays said.

The Asia-Pacific region as a whole may see annual data centre investment of $62 billion by 2030, up from around $35 billion last year, the report said. Emerging market economies in Asia will account for a majority of these flows, around 75% or $47 billion, with India and Malaysia the standout beneficiaries, Barclays said.

"India already has a headstart in terms of existing data centre capacity and based on the pipeline of proposed investments, we expect capacity to rise to nearly 3.4GW (gigawatt) by 2030," the report said. "That said, in terms of its size relative to GDP, data centre FDI (foreign direct investment) into India appears low and we estimate it remains near constant at 0.3% of GDP."

The demand for data centres has risen in Asia-Pacific because of higher data demand and the rise of cloud computing, the report said. Digitalisation, domestic legislative mandates for data localisation and the availability of land and power are also driving foreign investment in the region, it added. For India, increased digitalisation and internet penetration implies increased need for data storage and server facilities.

For the upcoming data centre markets such as India, Barclays expects no material pressure on current accounts from higher imports due to data centre investment. Additionally, exports of services related to data centres could more than double from current levels by 2030, providing a buffer, the report said.

"Overall, we expect the rise in data centre capacity as positive for growth, particularly for Malaysia," Barclays said. "While India is likely to have the largest capacity in EM (emerging markets) Asia, the size of the sector is still small relative to its GDP, implying a limited impact."  End

US$1 = INR 85.98

Reported by Shubham Rana

Edited by Vandana Hingorani

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