In New Delhi, February 11 Every time a user streams a movie on an OTT platform, makes a digital payment at a roadside tea stall, asks an AI chatbot to summarize meeting minutes on the go, or refines an email draft, a vast network of servers springs into action inside high-security concrete facilities. These data centers form the backbone of India's fast-expanding digital economy.
The country's rapid adoption of cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and digital payments – one of the defining success stories of New India – is fueling an unprecedented surge in demand for large-scale data infrastructure.
Operators are committing billions in capital expenditure to expand capacity, strengthen power redundancy systems, and enhance physical and cyber security.
Behind the fortified perimeters, the infrastructure powering India's digital services is both complex and meticulously engineered.
A visit to CtrlS' data center in Noida offered a glimpse into this digital nerve center. Inside, long rows of humming server racks, blinking consoles, heavy-duty power cables, and industrial-scale cooling ducts operate in synchronized precision – ensuring uninterrupted service for millions of users.
Top tech giants – from Amazon to Google and Microsoft – have announced big-ticket investments in setting up data centers in India. And such companies received a further boost in the Union Budget for 2026-27, which announced a tax holiday for them until 2047 on global cloud revenues if they route foreign workloads through Indian data centers.
At the Noida data center of CtrlS, Ashok Mysore, President - Sales, led a PTI walkthrough of critical infrastructure that powers the digital economy – a multi-tier structure supported by Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) rooms, which ensure continuous power to essential IT systems until backup generators activate; the battery room, housing battery banks connected to the UPS systems; and the utility corridors, where dedicated pathways manage power cables, network lines, and cooling systems.
The server hall – the core of the facility – houses rows of computing and storage equipment operating under tightly regulated temperature, humidity, and airflow conditions. Redundancy is built into every layer, reflecting the zero-tolerance approach to downtime in an economy that increasingly runs in real-time.
"Whether it's application, automation, or digital, AI is now center stage. While almost all customers, along with governments, are initiating AI, you need a one-stop place to host the infrastructure, and that is where data centers come into the picture," CtrlS Datacentres' Mysore explains.
The growing importance of such infrastructure is closely tied to the rapid adoption of artificial intelligence. India has emerged as a global powerhouse in AI adoption, ranking second only to the United States in enterprise AI and machine learning transactions, according to a recent report by cloud security firm Zscaler.
According to the report, Indian enterprises logged a staggering 82.3 billion AI/ML transactions between June and December 2025. This volume accounts for 46.2 per cent of all AI activity in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, comfortably placing India as the regional leader.
The report attributed the surge to sustained government-led digital transformation efforts, expanding AI skills, and cloud-first technology architectures that enable scalable deployment of AI services.
And the scale of investments, all around, reflects this momentum.
Between October and December 2025, global technology majors announced multi-billion-dollar investments in AI infrastructure and data centers in India, including USD 15 billion by Google, USD 17.5 billion by Microsoft, USD 35 billion by Amazon, and USD 11 billion by Digital Connexion.
India is set to take center stage in global AI conversations next week as it hosts AI Impact Summit 2026 – the largest of the four global AI summits hosted so far (AI Safety Summit hosted by the UK, the AI Seoul Summit, and the AI Action Summit hosted by France).
The much-awaited event – that has created quite a buzz – will reflect growing international focus on responsible, inclusive, and impact-driven AI, as well as India's expanding role in shaping the global AI narrative.
According to an official release, the Summit has garnered strong interest from the global community, with over 35,000 registrations received ahead of the event, at the last count.
Electronics and IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recently said that the government expects investment in data centers to cross USD 200 billion, about Rs 18.33 lakh crore, noting that proposals worth USD 90 billion have already been received, with nearly USD 70 billion having entered the construction phase.
Industry players are also scaling up commitments. "In CtrlS we committed to invest USD 2 billion in 2023... by end of 2030, we will exhaust that USD 2 billion, we are promising more and more investments in the data center industry," Mysore says.
As India's digital consumption deepens and AI-driven applications proliferate, such facilities are no longer peripheral infrastructure – they are mission-critical assets sustaining the country's economic engine.