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The credit rating agency Crisil has said that it expects Indian data centre players to invest Rs 55,000 crore to Rs 60,000 crore over FY2026 to FY2028, which will double the capacity in the range of 2.3 to 2.5 Gigawatt (GW). Further, the revenue of India's data centre operators, run by third parties, is estimated to grow by 20% to 22% annually to reach around Rs 20,000 crore by FY2028. The increased usage of digital technologies and platforms by both enterprises and retail consumers are expected to lead this growth.

Crisil highlighted, rapid adoption of public cloud by enterprises amid ongoing digital transformation and technological advancements, growing investments in artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and proliferation of 5G technology as three key factors which will drive the industry’s growth. Further, it noted that though the capital expenditure would require sizeable debt funding, the growing EBITDA from operational capacities will keep leverage steady at 4.6 to 4.7 times and support credit profiles. 

Moreover, credit profiles of data centres estimated to benefit from customer stickiness, given the high switching costs and long-term agreements with customers, especially hyperscalers. Notably, the share of hyperscalers in the overall revenue mix has been rising. They now account for more than half of the capacity tie-ups, providing stable and predictable cash flow visibility to data centre operators. Additionally, they are expected to set up captive data centres over the medium term, potentially leading to competitive pricing for third-party data centre operators.