Mumbai ranks 15th, Hyderabad 27th globally in operational data centre capacity: Knight Frank

Mumbai ranks 15th globally in terms of total operational data centre capacity while Hyderabad is at 27th position, according to Knight Frank.

Real estate consultant Knight Frank on Thursday released a report 'Knight Frank Global Data Centre Atlas 2026' that compares 36 leading global data centre markets across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa.

Mumbai ranked 15th globally by operational data centre capacity and 11th globally by development pipeline.

"With 774 MW of live IT capacity and nearly 5 GW of pipeline capacity, Mumbai has firmly established itself as India's gateway data centre market and one of Asia-Pacific's leading digital infrastructure hubs," the consultant said.

Hyderabad ranked 27th globally in live operational capacity (151 MW) while climbing to 19th globally by future development pipeline (over 2.2 GW).

The report has evaluated markets using two key indicators–a) Live IT Capacity–the amount of operational IT power (measured in megawatts or MW) currently installed across live data centres; b) Pipeline IT Capacity–the volume of capacity under construction, committed and in early stages of development.

In operational IT capacity, the top five positions are occupied by North American hubs with Ashburn at first position followed by Columbus, Dallas, Phoenix and Atlanta. Tokyo ranks sixth followed by London, Dublin, Chicago and Singapore.

Malaysia's Johor is at 11th position, Frankfurt 12th, Amsterdam 13th and Silicon Valley at 14th place.

Knight FRank India CMD Shishir Baijal, said, "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 markets reflects years of investment in connectivity, enterprise demand and cloud infrastructure, he added.

"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.

He emphasised faster power provisioning, expansion of renewable energy capacity, accelerated transmission upgrades, streamlined approvals and the availability of large development-ready sites for supporting the next generation of AI-led and hyperscale investments.