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World Bank’s private lending arm International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced a commitment of $371 Mn (₹3,500 Cr) in Sify Technologies’ subsidiary, Sify Infinit Spaces Ltd. (SISL), to develop two data centres in Navi Mumbai and Chennai.

The two upcoming data centres will have a combined capacity of 103 MW. In a statement, IFC said that the financial package includes a loan of $71 Mn (₹675 Cr) and $300 Mn (₹2,830 Cr) in additional support via debt mobilisation to support SISL’s growth and expansion in India.

Under the project, the upcoming data centres will be designed for AI-ready workflows and will incorporate energy-efficient cooling systems. IFC added that the facilities will use renewable energy for operations and will be built in line with Indian Green Building Council (IGBC) Platinum rating specifications.

Part of the World Bank Group’s Country Partnership Framework for India, the investment, as per the IFC, will expand access to cloud and AI-ready infrastructure, mobilise private capital into the data centre sector and support thousands of jobs.

“… With IFC as our partner, we gain not only access to capital but also a powerful vote of confidence that strengthens our position in the market and supports our ambitious expansion plans. We sincerely thank IFC for their faith in our journey and look forward to continuing our mission of building the digital infrastructure that will power India’s next phase of economic growth,” said SISL CFO Ganesh Sankararaman.

This comes barely a day after Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) announced that it was investing ₹4,000 Cr to acquire an 8.2% stake in data centre startup CtrlS. 

In addition, CPPIB and CtrlS will also form a joint venture (JV) to build hyperscale data center campuses across India, with the Canadian pensioner board committing up to ₹3,000 Cr to the JV. CPPIB will hold 48% ownership in the JV, while CtrlS will own the remaining 52%.

The developments underscores India’s growing prominence in the global data centre ecosystem, which is witnessing a massive boom on the back of growing AI demand, cloud expansion, and data localisation requirements. India’s data centre capacity reportedly is projected to cross 8 GW by 2030.

On the back of this, many global giants are making a beeline for the country. Earlier this week, Indian conglomerate Adani Group partnered with US-based manufacturing company Jabil Inc to build vertically-integrated AI and data centre infrastructure in India. 

Prior to this in June, global tech giant Meta tied up with Reliance Industries (RIL) to set up its first AI-enabled data centre in the country in Gujarat’s Jamnagar, with an initial capacity of 168 ​MW.

Amazon, too, previously also committed an investment of $12.7 Bn towards cloud infrastructure in India by 2030, while OpenAI is planning to set up a 1 GW data centre in India in partnership with TCS.

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