Davos: Web Werks lines up $4.2 billion investments in India

Global data center services provider Web Werks announced investments of about ₹35,000 crore (about $4.2 billion) to set up data storage facilities in Telangana, Karnataka and Maharashtra at the ongoing World Economic Forum summit in Davos, Switzerland.

While Web Werks has proposed to invest ₹20,000 crore ($2.4 billion) to set up a data center park in Bengaluru, the data center services provider has announced investments to the tune of ₹5,200 crore (0.6 billion) in Telangana, in addition to ₹10,000 crore ($1.2 billion) in Maharashtra.

“Great news from Davos! This is a giant leap in our infrastructure journey. Welcome aboard, Web Werks!” Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah posted on X (formerly Twitter).

“Karnataka has inked an MoU with Web Werks India Pvt. Ltd at the World Economic Forum. We’re set to welcome a massive ₹20,000 crore investment from Web Werks for a new Data Centre Park in Bengaluru,” he said.

The state government signed deals to the tune of ₹22,000 crore with seven companies, including Web Werks, a statement issued by M.B. Patil, Karnataka’s minister for large and medium industries and infrastructure development.

The Telangana government said Web Werks, a fully owned subsidiary of Iron Mountain, will invest ₹1,200 crore in a 10 megawatt networking-heavy data center in Hyderabad.

The fully owned subsidiary of US-based information management services firm Iron Mountain will invest an additional ₹4,000 crore in a greenfield hyper scale data center in Telangana, the state government said

“I am happy to see the inflow of highly technical IT infrastructure from data centers. Through policy changes, Telangana will be the top destination for data centers in India. Investors will be able to procure significant amounts of their power requirement from renewable sources,” Telangana chief minister A. Revanth Reddy said in a statement.

“Iron Mountain appreciates the partnership with the state government of Telangana. We currently use 100% renewable energy across our data centers globally and look forward to extending this in India,” William Meaney, president and chief executive of Iron Mountain, said in the statement.

In a separate development, the Maharashtra state government said it signed ₹10,000 crore investment deal with Web Werks for a mega IT/ITES data center in the state over the next five years

“Web Werks, one of India’s most trusted data center providers, today signed an MoU worth ₹10,000 crore to invest in Maharashtra in the presence of the Chief Minister @mieknathshinde. The agreement will see the Web Werks company invest in a mega IT/ITES data center over the next 5 years, which will provide direct employment to 150,000 people,” the chief minister’s office said in a post on X.

Shinde had earlier posted that the state had struck investment deals worth ₹3.5 trillion at the WEF summit.

India has become one of the fastest growing data center markets in the Asia-Pacific, and ranks 14th globally in its data center inventory, according to a report by industry lobby CII and global real estate services firm Colliers.

Data center operators are increasingly entering emerging markets, especially those that score high on power availability, affordable land parcels and infrastructure capabilities for data center development.

India has seen a surge in data center capacities in the past three years, driven by primarily by an exponential increase in data consumption, coupled with improving regulatory framework and robust investments in the sector.

India has over 880 million internet users, almost twice that of the US and 12 times that of the UK. However, data center space per 1 million of internet users in India stands significantly low compared to the established markets, the CII-Colliers report said.

As data localization becomes a norm, India’s data center market is likely to see fast-paced growth, opening opportunities for developers and operators in the space over the next 2-3 years, the report added.