India data centers could add $105B to imports, HSBC says
India is planning a massive upgrade to its data centers, mostly to keep up with AI growth.
HSBC says this could push the country's import bill up by $105 billion over the next few years, mainly because building these high-tech hubs means buying a lot more chips and equipment from abroad.
Chips to total $90B imports
Chips alone are expected to make up $90 billion of that total. Since imports will cover about 75% of construction costs, there's concern about the impact on India's current account deficit.
HSBC suggests tapping into foreign investment and spreading out spending as revenues from older data centers begin to flow in even as new facilities are being built (kind of like Malaysia did) to help ease the financial pressure while data-center capacity is expected to rise to 5 to 8 gigawatts over the next five years.