AirTrunk founder Robin Khuda meeting India’s Modi on Friday (Image: X)
Blackstone-backed AirTrunk has announced plans to invest $30 billion in India by 2030, targeting more than 5GW of new data centre capacity in what would rank among the country’s largest digital infrastructure commitments.
The announcement on Friday came on the same day that AirTrunk founder and CEO Robin Khuda met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi. Modi posted on X that the proposal was “among the largest proposed investments in the country’s digital infrastructure ecosystem.”
“Capital is mobile, and India is creating the conditions for it to thrive,” Khuda said in a company statement. “We were bullish on India before entering the market through Lumina. Following our discussions with government leaders this week, we’re looking to double down on that commitment.”
The India push comes as AirTrunk advances plans for a Singapore REIT listing aiming to raise $1.5 billion raise, with the IPO expected in the second half of this year.
India Investment Plan
In announcing its plan to develop facilities across multiple Indian states and union territories, AirTrunk pointed to government efforts such the Digital India tech initiative, the $1.2 billion IndiaAI Mission and the $9 billion India Semiconductor Mission, as supporting the development of infrastructure to support AI.
AirTrunk’s JHB1 project in Johor, Malaysia (Image: AirTrunk)
“Prime Minister Modi’s vision for India’s digital economy has helped create one of the world’s most compelling destinations for technology investment,” Khuda said. “India has the scale, talent, and ambition required to become a global AI powerhouse.”
The Sydney-based company’s existing India footprint — inherited through its April acquisition of Blackstone’s Lumina CloudInfra — includes 600MW of planned capacity across Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad, which Blackstone estimated could be worth up to $5 billion.
During the visit, Khuda also met with federal representatives and ministers in Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. Discussions focused on power access, renewable energy, water supply, talent development and approvals processes.
Khuda said there was “a genuine sense of urgency” around AI investment during the meetings. “There is a recognition that AI investment is a global race and that capital will flow to places that are prepared to compete for it,” he noted.
Supporting a Singapore IPO Plan
Market sources told Mingtiandi in April that AirTrunk is working with DBS, Citigroup and Jefferies on the Singapore listing, which would value the vehicle at roughly $2.5 billion. A Singapore-based analyst said the India and Malaysia moves demonstrated that AirTrunk was building an APAC-wide platform rather than pursuing a quick sale.
In May, the company said it would invest $3 billion on two new data centres in Malaysia’s Johor state, lifting its total Malaysian capacity to 700MW across four campuses.
AirTrunk also in March secured a record $1.2 billion green loan to expand its Tokyo campus beyond 300MW after having announced in December plans for a second Osaka hyperscale facility, building toward 530MW of capacity across four Japanese campuses.
Blackstone and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired AirTrunk in a $16 billion deal in 2024, when the platform comprised 800MW across 11 data centres.
India Data Centre Wave
AirTrunk’s announcement arrives as India draws some of the largest data centre bets of the current AI cycle. CBRE’s 2026 Asia Pacific Data Centre Trends & Outlook identified India and Malaysia as leading hyperscale hotspots, with Mumbai recording live capacity growth of 15–25 percent year-on-year in 2025.
Google broke ground in late April on a $15 billion AI hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh — its largest investment in India — working with partners AdaniConneX and Nxtra by Airtel to deliver gigawatt-scale compute capacity.
Microsoft’s largest India data centre, in Hyderabad, is on track to go live by mid-2026 as part of a $17.5 billion commitment to the country. Microsoft India and South Asia president Puneet Chandok cited “massive demand” for Azure and Copilot services, saying the company was “the fastest out of the gates” on its India build-out.
ESR entered the India market in February with a $100 million, 60MW hyperscale project in Navi Mumbai, pre-leased to a major telecom-sector company. Singapore-based ST Telemedia Global Data Centres launched its fourth Chennai data centre the same month and signed an MoU with Tamil Nadu’s government proposing INR 4,200 crore in further investment.
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