TL;DR (What You Need to Know in 30 Seconds)

• Chennai ranks second in India for operational data centre capacity, with major expansions by CtrlS, Sify, and others.
• Its coastal location, thriving IT sector, and IIT Madras research ecosystem position it as a key player in India’s AI mission.
• From subsea cable hubs to AI-optimised data centres, Chennai is becoming the critical infrastructure backbone for India’s AI future.

While Bengaluru holds the ‘Silicon Valley of India’ title, Chennai is quietly—and rapidly—establishing itself as one of the most important hubs for India’s AI future.

Located just 300 kilometres from Bangalore, Chennai is home to 19 operational data centres, the second-highest in India after Mumbai. As of mid-2023, Chennai’s operational data centre capacity was estimated at 88 MW, and significant expansions from companies like CtrlS (72 MW) and Sify have boosted that even further.

Coastal Advantage: Why Geography Matters

Mumbai and Chennai dominate India’s data centre map for a good reason: their coastal locations. These cities host undersea cable landing stations—critical infrastructure that connects international fibre-optic networks to Indian terrestrial networks.

At the recent inauguration of Sify’s Chennai 02 data centre (130+ MW capacity), CFO Vijay Kumar described Chennai and Mumbai as the “international airports for data,” thanks to their crucial role in global internet traffic management.

Chennai alone currently has seven active undersea cables connecting to nineteen countries, with three more cables under construction, offering low latency and high throughput for AI-driven applications.

Chennai’s Data Centre Boom

Major players like NTT Data, Bharti Airtel, Tata Communications, and Sify are investing heavily, with Chennai facilities offering on-site cable landing stations. The Sify Chennai 02 station alone can handle 4 petabytes per second—an astonishing rate.

Research from JLL projects Chennai’s operational data centre capacity will double by next year, and Mordor Intelligence predicts Chennai could cross 551.15 MW by 2030.

And it’s not just the hardware.

Chennai’s IT and GCC Strength

Chennai powers 15% of India’s total IT workforce and ranks third nationally for software exports. Giants like Infosys, Wipro, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM, Oracle, and Accenture all operate significant offices here.

The city also boasts 250+ Global Capability Centres (GCCs), cementing its position as a SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) capital of India.

According to Kevin Imboden of EdgeConnex, Chennai embodies the strengths of Mumbai (finance HQs), Bengaluru (tech hubs), and Delhi NCR (policy and government hubs)—making it a uniquely diverse centre for AI infrastructure growth.

AI-Ready Infrastructure

Chennai’s data centres are also among India’s most AI-ready.

• Sify achieved NVIDIA’s DGX-ready certification—enabling liquid-cooled, GPU-optimised infrastructure.
• Their Cloudinfinit +AI service offers GPU-as-a-service for enterprises tackling AI, deep learning, and compute-heavy tasks.
• E2E Cloud has launched massive GPU clusters in Chennai and Delhi NCR, featuring 1,024 NVIDIA H200 GPUs per cluster.

This is critical because as AI models grow more complex, they require more sophisticated and powerful infrastructure—something Chennai is now perfectly positioned to offer.

The IIT Madras X-Factor

Beyond infrastructure, IIT Madras (IIT-M) is Chennai’s AI crown jewel.

• The Wadhwani School of AI (WSAI) at IIT-M focuses on building India-centric AI models and datasets.
• Recent efforts include projects like testing LLM reasoning consistency, developing Indic-language datasets, and edge-optimised AI models.
• The launch of IndicTrans3-beta, supporting 22 Indian languages, and BhasaAnuvaad, a massive multilingual speech translation dataset, showcases IIT-M’s leadership in inclusive AI development.

Last year, Ziroh Labs and IIT-M also launched Kompact AI, enabling foundation models to run on CPUs instead of expensive GPUs—making AI more accessible to a broader set of users.

As Balaraman Ravindran, head of WSAI, aptly noted, IIT-M’s initiatives aim to build “AI for India”, not just replicate Western AI models.

Government Support Seals the Deal

Chennai’s ascent isn’t accidental. The Tamil Nadu Data Centre Policy (2021) offers:

• Tax concessions
• Electricity subsidies
• Land cost reductions
• Investor financial assistance

This proactive government stance ensures that Chennai remains one of the most attractive places for building next-gen, AI-ready infrastructure.

Why Chennai Will Lead India’s AI Race

With a rare combination of strategic geography, booming AI-ready infrastructure, talent from IIT-M, and government backing, Chennai is set to become a primary engine for India’s AI ambitions.

As the world watches India’s AI growth story unfold, Chennai will be the express train hurtling towards that future—fast, powerful, and unstoppable.

What do YOU think?

Is Chennai quietly building the foundations not just for India’s AI future—but for global leadership in AI infrastructure? Let us know in the comments below.

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