NTT: NTT unveils a new data center in Chennai

NTT launched a $350 million hyperscale data center (DC) campus in Chennai. MIST, its undersea cable system, will connect to the new DC site. The firm and TN inked a facilitation MoU in 2021.

Chennai 2, a six-acre DC campus in Ambattur, will have two towers with a 35 MW IT load. The first facility, operational on Thursday, has a 17.4 MW IT load capacity. The project expands NTT's data center footprint to 16 sites and over 3.1 million sq. ft.

NTT claims demand for data centers has not slowed, and AI's need for increased capacity is offsetting the slowdown in hyperscalers and the tech sector. Hyperscalers and enterprises like banks and financial services organizations will use the data center for storage and computation. It would also promote Chennai as a disaster recovery (DR) center for firms with primary IT infrastructure in other Indian cities.

NTT's IT capacity was 204 MW in 2022, according to Sharad Sanghi, chairman of NTT Global Data Centers & Cloud Infrastructure India. In 2023 alone, NTT will open six new DCs, including the one in Chennai, adding 140 MW to its capacity. NTT will add 800 MW of capacity in 18 months by introducing seven more DCs. Data centers need power and fiber connectivity, and while Mumbai has more power than Chennai, Sanghi thinks Chennai is developing.

Sustainable expansion is becoming a differentiation for data center businesses expanding rapidly. NTT plans to be carbon-neutral by 2030. In addition to building captive solar and wind power plants where feasible (in Mumbai and Bengaluru), the company also purchases green energy from third parties in other cities such as Chennai.