Elon Musk’s historic $75 billion SpaceX IPO is aimed at funding massive artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities and ‘orbital data centres’ designed to deliver high‑performance computing directly from space, among other audacious goals. The surge
in AI spending is truly staggering, with five main hyperscalers expected to spend $700 billion in 2026 alone. By 2030, global data centre capacity is projected to nearly double to around 200 GW,
with AI workloads driving up to 70 per cent of demand, according to McKinsey & Co. Investment requirements are estimated at $6.7 trillion worldwide. At the same time, AI workloads, cloud expansion, and digitalisation across industries are expected to nearly triple global data demand. India wants to capitalise on this opportunity by emerging as a leading digital services hub for the world by the next decade. In the last six years, the country has seen its data centre capacity surge a whopping 256 per cent.
But it’s not going to be easy. McKinsey says that despite global capacity growth, infrastructure and power availability may not be able to keep pace. India will have to match this by expanding its power sector. Similarly, water consumption is forecast to reach 3-5 million litres per day for hyperscale cooling. Additionally, there are other systemic issues regarding land acquisition and grid redundancy. Our deep-dive cover story, Digital India’s Beating Heart, in this issue, therefore, examines the opportunities, identifies existing and emerging roadblocks, and offers potential long-term solutions.
We also have India’s leading subject matter experts, including J Sagar Associates’ Anupam Varma and Aditya Gupta, Siemens Ltd’s Robert HK Demann, and Rodic Consultants’ Virender Kumar, discussing different aspects of the data centre jigsaw.
In an interaction with us, US-based Karthikeyan Natarajan, CEO of prescriptive AI firm Infinite Uptime, says India must leverage its digital public infrastructure to ride the next wave of AI.
It’s not just data centres but also the 1.4 billion aspirational Indians that are driving the growing electricity demand. This summer, the country’s demand peaked at 270.82 GW in May 2026, according to CEA data. Speaking exclusively to INFRASTRUCTURE TODAY, Anil Kakodkar, former Chairperson, Atomic Energy Commission & Director, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, declares that even if India fully exploits its renewable energy potential, nearly 20,000 TWh of annual demand will still have to come from nuclear and other low‑carbon sources. And that’s why nuclear energy would emerge as an important component of the country’s energy transition.
Since 2017, 15 million passengers have flown hitherto underserved and unserved routes under the Government’s Ude Desh Ka Aam Nagrik (UDAN) scheme to boost regional air connectivity. In an analysis especially authored for us by Crisil Intelligence experts Pushan Sharma, Mohit Adnani, and Jagruti Mahapatra, explain how the recently unveiled UDAN 2.0 scheme may take Indian aviation to the next level of growth. Moving to the rapidly expanding road and highway network, Amit Thatte of Kataline Ltd urges the conversation on road safety to be made part of the national discourse. Every year, road accidents are estimated to cost the country around 3 per cent of its GDP. At the RAHSTA Conference on July 8-9, 2026, stakeholders will deliberate on road safety, design, sustainability, and more. Later, at the AI‑Powered Data Centre Conference on July 22, 2026, experts will converge to network and exchange insights. See you there (details on page.21 & 51).
There’s more in this issue of INFRASTRUCTURE TODAY. Happy reading!
