AirTrunk, the Australian hyperscale data centre operator acquired by Blackstone Inc. for A$24 billion ($16 billion), is expanding into India as part of its broader Asia-Pacific growth strategy.
The move signals India’s growing importance in the global digital infrastructure landscape, driven by accelerating demand for artificial intelligence processing power and data capacity.
As investors pour capital into generative AI platforms, infrastructure providers are racing to build the backbone that supports this new phase of compute intensity.
Speaking at a recent industry conference in Sydney, as reported in a Bloomberg exclusive, AirTrunk’s Chief Executive Officer Robin Khuda confirmed that construction plans for its India site are already at an advanced stage.
The company is responding to India’s significant market potential, with a population of 1.5 billion and a large, active online user base.
This demographic scale positions the country as a key growth frontier for data-heavy AI applications.
Asia ramps up infrastructure to meet AI needs
Generative AI has triggered a surge in demand for scalable, high-performance data infrastructure across Asia. To support this, AirTrunk secured an A$16 billion refinancing package in August.
The funding will be used to expand or maintain operations in existing locations such as Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore.
These hubs are already critical to the region’s cloud and AI ecosystem, and the capital ensures they remain competitive in the face of fast-growing workloads.
AirTrunk’s entry into India is not an isolated decision, but part of a larger strategy to extend its reach across Asia’s most promising digital economies.
With data demands rising at a pace that surpasses traditional infrastructure cycles, new markets must be activated to sustain service delivery for AI and other high-bandwidth platforms.
India’s growing importance in the AI race is further underlined by Google’s recent announcement of a $15 billion investment in a southern India AI hub, its largest such facility outside the US.
India’s demographic strength supports data scaling
India’s appeal goes beyond population size. Its internet users are digitally engaged and increasingly dependent on mobile-first services that rely on low-latency data infrastructure.
The country offers substantial runway for hyperscale growth, especially as digital adoption accelerates across the enterprise and public sectors.
Other Asian markets, including Singapore and Hong Kong, have matured rapidly but face space and energy limitations.
India provides an alternative pathway for expansion, offering land availability, a young technology workforce, and rising domestic data needs.
The country’s potential as a data centre hub is now being recognised by global operators seeking regional diversification.
Competition for early dominance in India’s AI market has also intensified, with Google and Perplexity emerging as key players in a rapidly heating race.
Capital intensiveness and energy access remain key
The data centre industry requires enormous capital to scale effectively.
Blackstone’s acquisition of AirTrunk in 2024 was its largest digital infrastructure deal in the Asia-Pacific region and one of the biggest globally that year.
The investment was driven by long-term confidence in the role of infrastructure in supporting digital transformation, particularly through AI.
Despite strong financial backing, physical constraints remain. Power availability has become a major focus for operators and investors alike.
With AI workloads consuming more energy than traditional applications, electricity access and cost will play a decisive role in shaping the success of data centre projects.
Even well-funded firms must contend with the complexities of grid capacity, regulatory compliance, and sustainability benchmarks.
Competitive landscape widens across the region
AirTrunk’s expansion into India highlights the intensifying competition in Asia’s data centre market. The company already operates in four strategic markets and is now adding India to strengthen its position.
As AI reshapes the nature of computing, the need for distributed, energy-efficient, high-capacity infrastructure has never been greater.
India is emerging as a core node in this infrastructure network. It is no longer simply a consumer of digital services but is becoming a producer of data processing capacity for the region.
With AI adoption climbing across public, enterprise and developer ecosystems, infrastructure providers are accelerating investments to capture future demand.
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