Digital Edge, a Singapore-based data center platform company, has partnered with National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF), India’s first sovereign wealth fund, and AGP DC InvestCo Pte Ltd (AGP) to develop a pan-India portfolio of hyperscale data centers. A greenfield 300 MW hyperscale facility in Navi Mumbai is the partnership’s initial project, with a potential $2 billion investment (Rs 1,633 crore).
According to the company’s press release, the facility is positioned to become the largest data center hub in the country, providing access to infrastructure including fiber connectivity and power.
The partnership will manage the facilities under the name Digital Edge DC, with the goal of fostering the expansion of India’s cloud industry.
The facility will be built over a 47-acre site in several phases beginning in early 2023. The data center will be operated and promoted by Digital Edge DC once it is finished.
By joining together with NIIF and AGP, Digital Edge expands its platform to six Asian countries and enters the Indian market. The partnership wants to primarily use renewable energy sources to power its network of data centers.
“This project is another milestone in our ongoing journey and takes the count to 16 data centers across six Asian markets,” said Samuel Lee, chief executive officer at Digital Edge while commenting about the partnership.
According to the International Data Corporation (IDC), India’s public cloud services market is expected to grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 24.1% for the period 2020-2025.
Recent years have witnessed some notable deals in the cloud service industry, like the creation of Everstone and Yondr Group’s $1 billion joint venture EverYondr, which will begin operating data centers in July 2021. In February 2022, Princeton Digital Group’s data center platform received a $500 million investment from UAE-based investor Mubadala.
As for the Digital Edge, it has deployed close to $1 billion in capital throughout Asia. The company provides data center and fiber services across Asia, with a presence in China, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, and the Philippines.
The Master Fund, Fund of Funds, and Strategic Opportunities Fund are the three funds that NIIF manages, totaling more than $4.3 billion in equity capital. Throughout 2022, it has been actively investing in numerous infrastructure projects.
For around $76.5 million (roughly Rs. 631 crore), it acquired an equity holding in GMR Goa International Airport in December 2022. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between NIIF and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation (JBIC) was signed in November 2022 to encourage Japanese investment in India. The cooperation aims to spend $500–700 million in a new bilateral India–Japan Fund (IJF).
