India’s data-centre allure costs at least a third lower

India is emerging as one of the lower-cost markets for building large data centres, as the global race to expand computing capacity for artificial intelligence (AI) pushes technology companies to look for cheaper locations.

Construction of a data centre in India costs about $6 million to $7 million per megawatt (MW), compared with roughly $10 million to $14 million per MW in the US and Europe, according to Nomura. The comparison excludes land and computing equipment. Nomura, citing JLL data, said Indian construction costs are about 30–50% lower than developed Asia-Pacific and Western markets.