Equinix, prominent largest digital infrastructure company, has opened its first International Business Exchange data center in Chennai, expanding its footprint in India with a $69 million initial investment.
The new facility, CN1, is located on a six-acre campus in Siruseri, Tamil Nadu, and is directly interconnected with Equinix’s existing Mumbai data center cluster. With Chennai emerging as a key hub for subsea cable landings and digital innovation, CN1 is positioned to support India’s rapid adoption of cloud services, artificial intelligence (AI), and data sovereignty frameworks.
The four-story CN1 data center will initially provide 800 cabinets of capacity, scaling to 4,250 cabinets at full build-out. Designed for 99.999% uptime, CN1 also supports liquid cooling technologies to handle the high-density workloads that drive AI adoption.
“Our success in building the most interconnected ecosystem in Mumbai will now extend to customers in Tamil Nadu,” said Manoj Paul, Managing Director, Equinix India. “CN1 marks a pivotal step in advancing India’s digitalization journey and strengthening its role as a global technology hub.”
Equinix already serves more than 300 customers in India, including leading network service providers and five internet exchanges. Its Mumbai campus hosts native on-ramps to major cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud. The addition of CN1 provides enterprises in Chennai with low-latency access to this ecosystem, enabling hybrid multicloud strategies and seamless interconnection with partners.
Globally, Equinix operates over 270 data centers across 77 markets in 36 countries, including more than 60 in Asia-Pacific. In India, the company has achieved strong momentum as enterprises scale digital infrastructure to meet growing demand for AI, cloud, and secure interconnection.
The launch of CN1 also reinforces Equinix’s sustainability commitments, with the company achieving 96% renewable energy coverage worldwide in 2024, including India.
Key Highlights:
- Strategic Location: Built on SIPCOT land in Siruseri, about 28 km from Chennai’s central business district, and close to upcoming submarine cable landing sites.
- Capacity: Four-story facility, with 800 cabinets in the first phase and 4,250 at full build-out.
- AI-Ready: Purpose-built with liquid cooling support for high-density, compute-intensive workloads.
- Connectivity: Offers Equinix Fabric® and Cloud Router services for hybrid multicloud and partner interconnection.
- Sustainability: Operates within Equinix’s global 96% renewable energy coverage.
With the launch of CN1, Equinix strengthens its role as a critical enabler of India’s digital economy, supporting enterprises in scaling their operations while preparing for the next wave of AI-driven innovation.
As India strengthens its position as a key hub for innovation, research and AI investment, Chennai is emerging as the country’s focal point for this technological evolution, helping to pave the way for India to increase its global competitiveness in digital services and AI development. These advancements demand substantial computing power and data processing resources, driving India to rapidly expand its high-performance data center capacity. The launch of CN1 in Chennai marks a pivotal milestone in bolstering the digital infrastructure required to support these technologies.
With an initial investment of US$69 million, CN1 will provide 800 cabinets of capacity in its first phase. This facility will eventually support 4,250 cabinets. As with all Equinix facilities, the data center is engineered for a high reliability of 99.999% uptime and features a full suite of Equinix interconnection services, including Equinix Fabric®, which enables enterprises to leverage the full benefits of hybrid multicloud. Its advanced design also enables support for liquid cooling technology, which is essential for handling the high-density, compute-intensive workloads that are driving AI and other transformative technologies.
Equinix currently works with 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.
“We are delighted to announce the launch of our high-performance IBX data center, CN1, in Chennai, marking Equinix’s expansion in India and a pivotal step in advancing the nation’s digitalization journey,” said Manoj Paul, Managing Director, India, Equinix. “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. 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. With CN1’s cutting-edge capabilities, we look forward to enabling businesses in Chennai and across India to build future-ready, scalable digital infrastructure that supports sustainability to expand their business in Tamil Nadu and globally.”
Globally, Equinix operates more than 270 data centers across 77 markets in 36 countries, serving over 10,000 customers and enabling their digital transformation. In the Asia-Pacific region, Equinix’s portfolio includes more than 60 data centers across key metros in Australia, China*, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, and Singapore, providing interconnection and digital infrastructure solutions to support the region’s dynamic economies.
