India's data center capacity to surge, $100 billion GPU opportunity
Big things are happening in India's tech world: data center capacity is expected to shoot up from 1.5 GW to as much as 12 GW by 2031, according to Deloitte.
That's a $100 billion investment opportunity, fueled mostly by the AI boom shifting work from old-school CPUs to powerful GPUs.
Right now, GPUs handle about 30% of cloud workloads here, but that could jump to 70% in just five years.
GPU centers cost $30-35 million per MW
Building GPU-based centers isn't cheap, costing $30 to $35 million per megawatt compared to $12 million for CPUs, but India stands out with its lower building costs and affordable energy.
Investors are also drawn by supportive policies and plans for greener data centers with renewable energy and submarine cables.
Still, there are hurdles like high water use and new storage memory issues that need smart solutions as the sector grows.