Adani wants 5GW of AI data centres in India
The conglomerate is betting big on AI data centres, renewable energy, and an end-to-end ecosystem.
Adani Group this week announced plans to invest as much as US$100 billion by 2035 to develop AI data centres in India.
Specifics are limited, though the press release says it builds on AdaniConneX's existing 2GW national data centre roadmap and will take the total planned target to 5GW.
AdaniConneX is a 50:50 joint venture between Adani Enterprises and US-based EdgeConneX, and is touted as India's largest hyperscale data centre operator.
AI data centres
The data centre expansion is anchored by partnerships with Google, Microsoft, and Flipkart. According to Adani, this includes a 1GW AI data centre campus with Google in Visakhapatnam as well as additional campuses in Noida, data centres spanning Hyderabad and Pune for Microsoft, and plans to develop a second AI data centre with Indian e-commerce firm Flipkart.
The involvement of major hyperscalers signals strong demand backing these plans, not just aspiration. The Adani Group is also in discussions with other major players to build large-scale data centre campuses across India, suggesting the announced partnerships may only be the beginning.
End-to-end stack
Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani spoke of a five-layer AI stack, a framework that essentially covers apps, AI models, semiconductor chips, energy, and data centres. The ambition here goes beyond simply building facilities by controlling or influencing every layer of the AI value chain within India.
Or as Adani's CFO described, the idea is to catalyse and leverage additional investments across server manufacturing and supply chains to make India an "AI-first superpower."
To power all of this, Adani is investing heavily to expand its renewable energy portfolio, which will include the world's largest battery energy storage systems (BESS). If executed, it would give Adani a rare ability to supply both the energy and the infrastructure for AI at national scale.
Demand for data centres
From a population and digitalisation standpoint, India currently does not have enough data centres to serve its own needs. But Adani has clearly set its sights beyond traditional data centres and is looking to leapfrog ahead through multiple AI data centre deployments.
The India AI Impact Summit held in New Delhi this week drew attendees including around 10 heads of state and industry luminaries such as Alphabet's Sundar Pichai, OpenAI's Sam Altman, and Anthropic's Dario Amodei. Where do you see India's data centre market heading?
