Vultr plans to scale its AI computing capacity in India to 1 GW by 2029, beginning with a 20 MW cluster in Chennai that the US-based cloud infrastructure provider expects to operationalise by March 2027.
The company said the Chennai facility will serve enterprises and startups running artificial intelligence training and inference workloads. Its India-wide expansion is planned in stages, with capacity targeted to reach 600 MW by 2028 before rising to 1 GW in 2029.
Vultr’s chief marketing officer, Kevin Cochrane, said the company is scouting and evaluating sites across India for the multi-stage expansion. The planned capacity will therefore be distributed across multiple locations rather than concentrated entirely in Chennai, although the city will host the company’s initial 20 MW AI cluster.
The announcement places Chennai within the rapidly developing infrastructure network required to support large-scale AI workloads. Unlike conventional cloud demand, AI training and inference require dedicated computing capacity and specialised data-centre infrastructure. Vultr’s plan indicates that companies are preparing for rising demand from both Indian businesses and global enterprises operating in the country.
Cochrane said Vultr made its initial strategic investment in India after identifying the country as a major base for enterprise platform engineers, cloud-native architects and developers. He also said India is a primary centre for engineers developing and deploying open-source AI models and agentic systems for global use.
The company’s India, Asia-Pacific and Middle East vice-president, Piyush Gupta, said Vultr provides cloud infrastructure at costs that are 50% to 90% lower than those of traditional hyperscalers. According to Gupta, the lower pricing allows startups and enterprises to redirect savings towards hiring and expanding their workloads. The cost comparison was presented by Vultr as part of its case for expanding its cloud capacity in India.
The company has also signed a memorandum of understanding with StartupTN, the state’s startup promotion agency, to provide eligible startups with cloud computing credits worth up to $45,000, along with preferential pricing. The arrangement is intended to extend access to Vultr’s infrastructure for startups across Tamil Nadu.
For Chennai, the 20 MW cluster is the first defined milestone in a much larger national capacity plan. The company has not disclosed the specific locations of its other planned facilities, the investment required for the full expansion or the detailed schedule for construction and commissioning beyond the stated targets. The next announced milestone is the planned operationalisation of the Chennai cluster by March 2027.
