Mumbai has secured the 15th spot globally in operational data centre capacity, while Hyderabad ranks 27th, according to a report by the real estate consultancy Knight Frank.
Knight Frank, in its latest report titled Knight Frank Global Data Centre Atlas 2026, compared 36 leading data centre markets across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa. Mumbai ranked 15th globally in terms of operational data centre capacity and 11th in the world based on its development pipeline.
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Hyderabad, meanwhile, stood 27th globally in live operational capacity, with 151 MW, but ranked higher at 19th globally when it came to its future development pipeline, which stands at more than 2.2 GW.
The report assessed the data centre markets using two key indicators: Live IT Capacity, which refers to the operational IT power currently installed across live data centres and is measured in megawatts (MW), and Pipeline IT Capacity, which covers capacity that is under construction, committed or in the early stages of development.
In terms of operational IT capacity, North American markets dominate the top five positions. Ashburn ranks first, followed by Columbus, Dallas, Phoenix and Atlanta.
Tokyo occupies the sixth position, followed by London, Dublin, Chicago and Singapore. Malaysia's Johor ranks 11th, while Frankfurt, Amsterdam and Silicon Valley occupy the 12th, 13th and 14th positions, respectively.
Knight Frank India CMD Shishir Baijal noted that, "India's presence in the global rankings demonstrates how rapidly the country has evolved into a strategic digital infrastructure destination."
Mumbai's position among the world's leading operational data centre markets reflects years of investment in connectivity, enterprise demand and cloud infrastructure, the report highlighted.
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The report also said that the need for faster power provisioning, greater renewable energy capacity, accelerated transmission upgrades, streamlined approvals and the availability of large, development-ready sites. "However, if India is to move into the league of the world's top ten data centre markets, the focus must now shift from demand creation to enabling infrastructure," Baijal said.
These factors will be important in supporting the next phase of investments driven by artificial intelligence and hyperscale data centres, he added.
(With PTI Inputs)
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