Digital Realty Trust: Digital Realty and Brookfield Start Data Center Construction in Chennai, India

BAM Digital Realty has begun construction on its first data center in India. This week, the company, a partnership between Brookfield Infrastructure and Digital Realty, revealed that building of a data center in Chennai has begun and is on schedule to be completed by the end of the year. MAA10, the first structure on the new campus, will have a 20 MW capacity. The 10-acre complex at Ambattur Industrial Estate will have 100 MW of capacity upon completion. 

In July 2021, Digital Realty and Brookfield established a 50:50 joint venture to construct and operate data centers in "several Indian metropolitan areas." Early in 2022, the firms paid $30 million for a 10-acre property. Brookfield reportedly acquired a 30-acre plot of land in Navi Mumbai from real estate developer K Raheja Corp for $81 million in August 2021, with the intention of constructing a data center there. 

Brookfield Infrastructure Group's chief executive and head of infrastructure for India and the Middle East, Arpit Agrawal, stated that with the construction of their first data center, they began their mission to facilitate the Indian government's Digital India vision of digital inclusion for everyone. He added that they were thrilled to bring their global development experience to the Indian market and to become the data infrastructure preferred provider for their customers, starting in Chennai and expanding throughout the country. Digital Realty and Brookfield Infrastructure jointly own the Latin American data center company Ascenty, which boasts more than 250 MW of capacity across 30 operational or under-construction facilities in Brazil, Chile, and Mexico.