Billionaire Mukesh Ambani announced on Sunday (7 January) that his company, Reliance Industries, in collaboration with Canada’s Brookfield, will inaugurate a data center in Chennai next week, marking its entry into the rapidly growing market as reported by The Economic Times.

In July last year, Reliance invested about Rs 378 crore to join an existing joint venture with Brookfield Infrastructure and US-based real estate investment trust Digital Realty, where the three entities each own a 33 per cent stake.

Ambani mentioned during the Tamil Nadu Global Investors Meet that Reliance is also investing in renewable energy, green hydrogen, and setting up a state-of-the-art data centre in the state.

The Indian data centre market is anticipated to grow 40 per cent annually and attract USD 5 billion in investments by 2025, with competition heating up due to Reliance’s entry, rivalling Adani Group and Bharti Airtel.

The joint venture will commence a 20-megawatt greenfield data centre in Chennai and has acquired land in Mumbai for another 40-MW data center.

Ambani expressed confidence in Tamil Nadu becoming a trillion-dollar economy under Chief Minister M K Stalin’s leadership and highlighted Reliance’s investments in the state’s retail and telecom sectors.

He also committed to new investments in renewable energy and green hydrogen in collaboration with the state government.