India is looking to unlock more than $ 200 billion in investments by becoming a global hub for data centres, semiconductors and artificial intelligence. Union Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said these sectors, along with a stronger manufacturing base, will play a key role in driving India towards a $ 30 trillion economy by 2047.

India’s data centre sector is expanding rapidly, supported by rising internet usage, cloud computing, digital services and artificial intelligence adoption. Growing demand for data storage and processing is encouraging both domestic and global companies to invest in new facilities. With its large digital user base, improving infrastructure and growing technology ecosystem, India is emerging as an important market for data centre investments.

Speaking after a roundtable with data centre industry stakeholders in Delhi, Piyush Goyal gave a clear estimate of the opportunity.

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“Nothing less than $ 200 billion can be seen coming into the data centres industry,” he told reporters. He added that many participants—large hyperscalers, international investors and Indian companies—believe even this figure is conservative.

“Some of the participants also indicated that this is a very low figure and India has the potential, the demand, international interests and capabilities to aspire for much more,” Goyal said.

The meeting in the national capital focused on improving ease of doing business for the sector, covering issues such as power supply, land, construction, environmental clearances and other approvals across the entire value chain.

Data centres, semiconductors and AI as growth engines

Piyush Goyal linked the data centre boom to India’s broader technology and industrial strategy. “India’s growing data centre and semiconductor sectors, along with its push into artificial intelligence and expanding manufacturing base, are expected to drive economic growth in the coming years. The country is also strengthening its position as a manufacturing hub for globally competitive products, supporting its long-term growth ambitions.

He pointed to India’s 7.8% GDP growth in Q1 (April–June 2026) as evidence of resilience despite global wars, uncertainty and volatility, creating a strong foundation for such capital-intensive sectors.

“We are proud of the people of India who, even in these very unnerving and difficult times, with two wars raging and global uncertainty and volatility, have given India 7.8 per cent growth in the quarter from April to June 2026,” Goyal said.

Why India is the best location for data centres

According to Goyal, India offers a unique mix of advantages for data centre investors:

  • Huge and growing digital demand from consumers, businesses and government
  • Strong policy support and a push to simplify regulations and approvals
  • Expanding power and infrastructure capacity to support large data centre parks
  • Strategic location to serve both domestic and international cloud and AI workloads
  • Trusted partner status for global hyperscalers looking to diversify their footprint

He said, “We did a round table discussion with stakeholders related to the data centre industry on ease of doing business to promote data centres in a big way because undoubtedly, India is the world’s best location to set up data centres.”

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Industry sees very low estimate; bigger ambitions ahead

During the meeting, industry leaders indicated that the $ 200 billion figure could be just the starting point. The Anarock Capital report suggests that upcoming data centre supply in India could be driven by investment commitments exceeding USD 300 billion by 2030, with major global players announcing large hyperscale parks.

Goyal said the government is already acting on feedback from earlier interactions, coordinating between central ministries and state governments to resolve bottlenecks in power, land and approvals.

“We go back from this meeting educated, with lots of ideas how we can make India the data centre of the world,” he said.

Linking Japan, semiconductors and future tech

The minister also referred to his recent engagements in Japan, where he discussed collaboration in semiconductors, shipbuilding, AI, data centres, automobiles, electronics, engineering and pharmaceuticals. He said Japanese businesses showed strong enthusiasm to partner with India in these sectors, reinforcing the view that India is becoming a global manufacturing and technology hub.

Industry sees $700–800 billion opportunity

India’s data centre industry sees a $ 700–800 billion investment opportunity as the government moves to resolve bottlenecks related to power, land, approvals and infrastructure, industry stakeholders said after a roundtable with Goyal. Representatives from different government departments and state governments participated, helping address several concerns on the spot, while subcommittees were formed to handle issues needing more detailed work under a time-bound programme.

Devin Narang, Non-Executive Chairman at Turner & Townsend, said, “A lot of issues were raised and resolved by the minister on the spot, for example, power issues, ease of doing business and how we can expand this whole industry.”

He added, “Subcommittees have been formed to further go into the details of what was not resolved on the table, and that will be resolved within a time-bound programme.”

Narang flagged concerns over time taken to secure power connectivity, power surges and availability of skilled manpower, noting, “As the data centre industry expands, we do not have the trained manpower. We are now exploring to see if we could set up centres in India where manpower could be trained to take up the necessary skills required for data centers.”

Full value chain in focus; vision of $200 bn investment

Rachit Mohan of JLL said discussions covered the entire chain needed for data centre development, “We looked at power infrastructure, land, construction, approvals, environment approvals – the entire value chain which is helping large global demand as well as Indian cloud demand for actually delivering their data center supply in India.”

He added that the minister outlined a clear investment target, “Minister has a vision of $ 200 billion of investment coming into the Indian data center industry. And with this kind of workforce put together, we are very confident that this is something which will be achievable.”

Himani Agrawal, COO at Microsoft India and South Asia, highlighted the company’s expanding hyperscale footprint, “We as Microsoft have the largest hyperscale infrastructure with four regions, and our latest region, Hyderabad, is AI-ready from day one, which is enabling India not just to participate in AI demand, but to shape it for the global AI economy.”

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Low costs, sovereign data push and just the beginning

Sudhir Prasad, CEO of Tower Vision India, pointed to India’s cost advantage, “India, in terms of CAPEX and OPEX, both infrastructure cost and running cost, is amongst the lowest in the world,” adding that the country’s data centre industry was “just the beginning”.

On data sovereignty, Yogesh Kochhar, President of Yotta Foundation, said, “We need to host our own data, sovereign data, on sovereign land by ourselves. That’s the critical and key point that we raised with the minister.”

Kochhar, who said India has fewer data centres than developed markets, stressed, “Data is the new lifeblood of the economy today, and India needs to gear itself up to be able to address the data center opportunity that is evolving in the world.”