Digital Realty, in collaboration with Brookfield Infrastructure and Reliance Industries, is set to establish a three-way joint venture aimed at developing cutting-edge, highly-connected, and scalable data centres in India. RIL will hold a 33.33% stake in each of the Indian SPVs, becoming an equal partner. The joint venture, named ‘Digital Connexion: A Brookfield, Jio, and Digital Realty Company,’ is currently focused on building data centres in prime locations in Chennai and Mumbai.
The first data centre, MAA10, with a capacity of 20 megawatts (MW), will be constructed on a 100 MW campus in Chennai and is expected to be operational by the end of 2023. These data centres will be equipped with essential terrestrial and undersea cable connectivity, serving as global hubs for Indian companies and gateways into India for multinational corporations.
Given the surging demand for digital services, including OTT platforms, gaming, and the upcoming 5G implementation, India’s data centre capacity is predicted to experience significant growth in the coming years. The adoption of 5G use cases by enterprises, along with the rise of data-intensive technologies like IoT and AI, will further drive the need for expanded data centre and compute capabilities.
The joint venture is strategically positioned to cater to both global and local enterprises, SMBs, and startups in India, offering cloud and colocation solutions for their compute resource requirements. Leveraging Digital Realty’s energy-efficient data centre platform, Brookfield’s expertise in the Indian infrastructure market, and Jio’s extensive digital ecosystem and strong enterprise relationships, the data centres developed by the JV will be at the forefront of meeting the evolving demands of the country’s digital landscape.
on, such as high-definition live content, AR / VR experiences, cloud gaming, immersive shopping experiences and cloud PC have massive compute capacity requirements. We would like to thank the Indian government for granting infrastructure status to data centres and for creating a favourable ecosystem for their development and operations, which is critical for India’s vision to become a $1 Trillion digital economy by 2025.”
Arpit Agrawal, Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure, India & Middle East, Brookfield, added, “We are very pleased to expand our existing partnership with Reliance and add their deep expertise in the Indian telecom, tech and data landscape to the platform. Data Centres provide essential services and critical infrastructure to support the digitalisation that is taking place in every aspect of life in India. Together with Reliance and Digital Realty, we look forward to providing the best solutions to the digital transformation needs of Indian and global corporates.”
Serene Nah, Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, Digital Realty, said, “India is a mostly untapped market for the data centre industry driven by the rapid adoption of digital business models, the world’s largest population, and a government that recognises the role of technology for future economic development. This joint venture brings together three global leaders in digital infrastructure to accelerate Digital India by developing, owning and operating institutional quality carrier-and cloud neutral data centres across India.”
