Cortex DC, a subsidiary of The Chatterjee Group, plans to develop 2 GW of AI-ready data-centre capacity across India’s Golden Quadrilateral over the next seven years, using existing land parcels in the west, east, north and south of the country.
The company is entering the data-centre sector to serve rising demand for high-performance computing linked to artificial intelligence and cloud adoption. Cortex DC Chief Executive Officer Rahul Sharma said the company has not fixed the number of facilities it will build, with the scale and location of the projects to be determined as planning progresses.
“There is no fixed number of data centres envisaged at this stage. Our plan is to develop 2 GW of AI-ready data centre capacity across India’s Golden Quadrilateral, with the scale and number of facilities determined as the project progresses,” Sharma told The Hindu BusinessLine.
The proposed sites are currently being explored and evaluated. Sharma said the company would use its existing land parcels across different regions of India, rather than identifying a fixed national network of facilities at this stage. The locations will be assessed on the basis of multiple considerations, though the company did not disclose a detailed site-selection framework.
Cortex DC said the facilities are intended to serve both domestic and global customers. The industries and sectors that will use the infrastructure will depend on demand and changing customer requirements, according to the company. Its stated focus includes AI, cloud and enterprise workloads, areas that require substantial computing capacity and data storage.
The company is targeting operational readiness for its first data centre within 18 months of the first shovel being put in the ground. That timeline is intended to support demand for AI-ready infrastructure, hypercompute capability and data consumption. The announcement does not specify the location, investment value or planned capacity of the first facility.
Power sourcing is another component of the plan. Sharma said the data centres are expected to use electricity from multiple green-energy sources, with 51 per cent of their energy requirement envisaged to be met through green power. The company has not yet disclosed the specific renewable sources, procurement arrangements or grid infrastructure that would support the proposed facilities.
The seven-year development plan therefore remains at the site-evaluation and capacity-planning stage, with the number of data centres, their locations and the sequencing of construction still to be determined. Cortex DC’s first operational milestone is planned for within 18 months of construction beginning.
