After Mumbai, Equinix opens first Chennai data centre with $69 mn investment to power AI growth

Equinix, the country unit of US-based global digital infrastructure giant, has expanded its AI ecosystem, with the opening of its first International business exchange (IBX) data centre in Siruseri, Chennai (CN1). The new facility will be interconnected with Equinix's Mumbai campus, which has three IBX data centres. The company says that with an initial investment of $69 million to provide 800 cabinets of capacity, it will eventually support 4,250 cabinets.

The facility incorporates advanced features to enhance efficiency and reduce environmental impact, including fault-tolerant design offering 99.999% uptime; liquid cooling readiness to support AI deployment; multiple diverse fiber paths; long-term commitment to renewables, investing in both solar and wind energy; and Equinix interconnection services.

Equinix India is doubling down on its India play. Though India may still be a small contributor to Equinix’s global revenues, the company believes the growth opportunity is enormous. “We have been growing India business by around 25-26% last year over the previous year. And it will grow furthermore, once our new data centres come to life,” Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India, told Fortune India.

The company says the data centre is engineered for a high reliability of 99.999% uptime and features a full suite of Equinix interconnection services, including Equinix Fabric, which enables enterprises to leverage the full benefits of hybrid multi-cloud services. Its advanced design also enables support for liquid cooling technology, which is essential for handling the high-density, compute-intensive workloads driving AI and other transformative technologies.

Paul says the milestone highlights the company's "commitment to empowering India’s position as a global technology hub. "With CN1’s cutting-edge capabilities, we look forward to enabling businesses in Chennai and across India to leverage future-ready, scalable and digital infrastructure that supports sustainability to expand their business in Tamil Nadu and globally."

India is leveraging technology to drive innovation and economic growth, with a strong focus on becoming a global leader in AI. As part of this vision, the country is investing heavily in emerging technologies, including AI, quantum computing, blockchain and edge computing. These demand substantial computing power and data processing resources. In recent years, Tamil Nadu has also strengthened its position as a key hub for innovation, research and AI investment.

Equinix currently hosts over 300 companies in India, including network service providers and five internet exchanges. Its Mumbai campus consists of three high-performance data centres and hosts a robust cloud ecosystem for customers in India. Globally, Equinix operates over 270 data centre across 77 markets in 36 countries, serving over 10,000 leading businesses and enabling their digital transformation.