Overview
- Brookfield told investors on Tuesday that it expects about 6.5 gigawatts of AI-focused data‑centre capacity to come online in India over the next five years and clarified this is a market‑wide estimate rather than its own build plan.
- Brookfield’s India joint venture Digital Connexion currently holds about 160 megawatts of capacity, of which roughly 60 megawatts is operational and fully leased and the rest is under construction.
- A rapid increase from roughly 1.5 gigawatts installed today to the projected level would sharply raise electricity demand and require new approaches to power, such as long‑term renewable contracts, on‑site generation, and battery storage.
- Industry leaders and government data show grid connection bottlenecks, long equipment lead times and local concerns over water, emissions and backup generators could slow delivery of planned projects.
- Competition from domestic groups and global cloud providers is intensifying while regulators and utilities consider how to add transmission and meter new loads, a shift that could reshape where and how data centres are built.