According to DCD, AirTrunk CEO Robin Khuda confirmed at a Fortune conference in Sydney that the Blackstone-owned data center operator is planning its first facility in India. The company, which was acquired by Blackstone and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board for $16.1 billion last year, is responding to what Khuda called “overwhelming demand” from Indian users. While describing plans as “pretty advanced,” Khuda didn’t specify when or where the data center would be built or what capacity it would have. The announcement comes as AirTrunk was just named as the potential buyer for a massive 1GW campus being planned in Western Sydney. With existing campuses across Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, and Japan, this marks AirTrunk’s continued aggressive expansion across the Asia-Pacific region.
India’s data center rush
Here’s the thing – India’s data center market is absolutely exploding right now. Every major player wants a piece of the action, and AirTrunk is just the latest heavyweight jumping in. But what’s really interesting is that Khuda didn’t give any specifics on timing or capacity. That tells me they’re still working through the complex logistics of entering a market that’s notoriously challenging for foreign operators. Land acquisition, power infrastructure, regulatory approvals – it’s all a massive undertaking. And with companies like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com supplying the industrial-grade hardware needed to run these facilities, the entire ecosystem is gearing up for what could be the next major battleground in global data infrastructure.
AI’s infrastructure gold rush
Khuda didn’t hold back on his assessment of the AI boom, calling it “the single-biggest gold rush in human history.” And honestly? He’s probably not wrong. The compute demands from AI workloads are absolutely insane compared to traditional cloud applications. We’re talking about power requirements that make older data centers completely obsolete. But here’s what caught my attention – his comment that “there’s more than enough business across Asia to sustain AirTrunk and its rivals.” That’s a pretty telling admission from someone in an industry known for cutthroat competition. Basically, he’s acknowledging that the demand is so massive right now that there’s room for everyone at the table.
Blackstone’s data center bet
Let’s not forget that Blackstone dropped $16.1 billion to acquire AirTrunk last year – which was the largest-ever deal in the space at the time. That’s not pocket change, even for a firm like Blackstone. So this India expansion isn’t just some speculative move – it’s part of a carefully calculated strategy to dominate the Asia-Pacific data center market. With AirTrunk already operating multiple campuses in Australia, Japan, Singapore, and Malaysia, India represents the logical next frontier. The question is whether they can execute as quickly as the market demands. Because in this AI gold rush, the early movers are the ones who strike it rich.
