Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), the largest pension investor in Canada, has made a significant investment in the Indian data center sector. The organisation has committed up to ₹70 billion (approximately $741 million) to Indian data center operator CtrlS, as part of a broader push into digital infrastructure.
The investment will see CPP Investments acquire an 8.2% stake in CtrlS, with the option to increase its stake in the future. CtrlS, which operates over 15 data centers across India, will use the investment to expand its capacity and build infrastructure tailored for AI workloads.
India has become a major destination for data center and AI investments, with companies such as Amazon, Google, and Microsoft announcing investments in the country in recent months. The Indian government has also implemented policy measures to support the growth of the data center sector, including tax exemptions for foreign cloud providers.
The investment is expected to drive growth in India's data center sector, which has seen significant investment in recent months. In March, Blackstone-backed AirTrunk announced plans to invest $30 billion in the sector, while Meta partnered with Reliance Industries to build a 168-megawatt AI-enabled data center in the western state of Gujarat.
While the investment is significant, it also raises concerns about the impact on electricity and water resources in India. The rapid buildout of data centers is expected to increase pressure on these resources, highlighting some of the challenges that could accompany India's ambitions to become a major AI infrastructure hub.