Equinix, Inc., the global leader in digital infrastructure®, is driving India’s digital transformation and expanding its AI ecosystem with the opening of its first International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data center in Chennai, named CN1. Situated on nearly six acres in Siruseri, this new facility will be interconnected with Equinix’s existing Mumbai campus, which houses three IBX data centers, to enhance business digitization, resilience, and AI development across India.
With an initial investment of $69 million, the state-of-the-art Chennai data center offers 800 cabinets of capacity and plans to expand up to 4,250 cabinets. Designed for exceptional reliability with 99.999% uptime, the facility includes a full range of Equinix interconnection services such as Equinix Fabric®, allowing enterprises to fully utilize hybrid multicloud environments. Its cutting-edge infrastructure also supports liquid cooling technology, crucial for managing high-density, compute-intensive AI workloads.
As Tamil Nadu emerges as a leading hub for innovation, research, and AI investment, Chennai is poised to become a central player in India’s technological growth, boosting the country’s global competitiveness in digital services and AI advancements.
India is leveraging technology to drive innovation and economic growth, with a strong focus on becoming a global leader in AI. As part of this vision, the nation is investing heavily in emerging technologies, including AI, quantum computing, blockchain and edge computing. These advancements demand substantial computing power and data processing resources, urging India to expand its data center capacity. The launch of CN1 in Chennai marks a pivotal milestone in strengthening the digital backbone required to support these technologies.
Equinix currently hosts more than 300 companies in India, including network service providers and five internet exchanges. Its Mumbai campus consists of three high-performance data centers and hosts a robust cloud ecosystem for customers in India, including native on-ramps to key cloud service providers such as Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure and Oracle Cloud. With the launch of CN1, customers in Chennai can gain low-latency access to this key digital ecosystem, enabling seamless and secure connectivity with their business partners, customers and providers.
Manoj Paul, Managing Director, India, Equinix, said, “We are delighted to announce the launch of our state-of-the-art IBX data center, CN1, in Chennai, marking Equinix’s expansion in India and a pivotal step in advancing the nation’s digitalization journey. Our success in building the most interconnected ecosystem for cloud, carrier, content and enterprises in Mumbai will now be extended to customers in Tamil Nadu. Similarly, global enterprises planning to come closer to their customers in southern India now can leverage Equinix’s IBX facility in Chennai. This milestone highlights our commitment to empowering India’s position as a global technology hub while ensuring sustainability and innovation remain at the core of our operations. We extend our heartfelt gratitude to the Tamil Nadu Government in general and Industries Department, Guidance and SIPCOT for their unwavering support throughout our planning and construction period, making this vision a reality. With CN1’s cutting-edge capabilities, we look forward to enabling businesses in Chennai and across India to leverage future-ready, scalable and digital infrastructure that supports sustainability to expand their business in Tamil Nadu and globally.”
Equinix reinforces its commitment to sustainability and technological innovation with the launch of CN1 in Chennai, designed to meet India’s growing computational and AI demands. The facility features advanced technologies to boost efficiency and minimize environmental impact, including a fault-tolerant design with 99.999% uptime, liquid cooling readiness for AI, multiple fiber paths, renewable energy investments, and Equinix interconnection services. Globally, Equinix operates over 270 data centers in 77 markets across 36 countries, supporting 10,000+ businesses. In Asia-Pacific, it runs 60+ data centers across major cities in 10 countries, delivering interconnection and digital infrastructure for the region’s growing economies.
Highlights/Key Facts:
Equinix CN1, located on nearly six acres in SIPCOT Siruseri, Tamil Nadu—about 28 km from Chennai’s Central Business District —is strategically positioned near future submarine cable landing sites. The four-story facility will eventually support 4,250 cabinets, with 800 available in Phase 1. CN1 is AI-ready, built to support liquid cooling for high-density workloads. It offers advanced interconnection services like Equinix Fabric and Fabric Cloud Router for secure hybrid multicloud connectivity. As of 2024, Equinix achieved 96% renewable energy coverage globally, including in India.
