RIL partners with Brookfield Infra, Digital Realty for data center business in India

Mukesh Ambanil-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Monday said that it is entering into an agreement to invest alongside Brookfield Infrastructure and Digital Realty in their Indian SPVs (Special Purpose Vehicles) set up for developing data centers in India. RIL will hold 33.33 per cent stake in each of the Indian SPVs and become an equal partner, the company said in a statement.

Speaking about the transaction, Kiran Thomas, CEO, Jio Platforms Limited, said, "We are excited to partner with Digital Realty, one of the most innovative data center companies globally, and with Brookfield, our existing and trusted partner. The partnership will help us serve our enterprise and SMB clients with cutting-edge, plug-and-play solutions delivered from the cloud and lead their digital transformation and make them more competitive and efficient.”

“We would like to thank the Indian government for granting infrastructure status to data centers and for creating a favourable ecosystem for their development and operations, which is critical for India’s vision to become a $1 Trillion digital economy by 2025,” she added.

Digital Realty Trust, Inc. (Digital Realty) is the largest provider of cloud and carrier-neutral data center, colocation, and interconnection solutions globally with 300+ data centers across 27 countries. They have a joint venture (JV) with Brookfield Infrastructure that is developing high-quality, highly-connected, scalable data centers to meet the critical infrastructure needs of enterprises and digital services companies in India. RIL will become an equal partner in the JV, which will be branded as ‘Digital Connexion: A Brookfield, Jio and Digital Realty Company’. 

The JV is currently developing data centers in Chennai and Mumbai. The JV’s first 20 megawatt (MW) greenfield data center (MAA10), on a 100 MW campus in Chennai, is expected to be completed by the end of 2023. The JV recently announced the acquisition of 2.15 acres of land in Mumbai, to build a 40 MW data center. 

Serene Nah, Managing Director and Head of Asia Pacific, Digital Realty, said, “India is a mostly untapped market for the data center industry driven by the rapid adoption of digital business models, the world’s largest population, and a government that recognises the role of technology for future economic development.”

Arpit Agrawal, Managing Director, Head of Infrastructure, India & Middle East, Brookfield, added, “We are very pleased to expand our existing partnership with Reliance and add their deep expertise in the Indian telecom, tech and data landscape to the platform. Data centers provide essential services and critical infrastructure to support the digitalisation that is taking place in every aspect of life in India.”

Jio's 4G and 5G connectivity network with deep fiber presence, covering 99.5 per cent of the Indian population, strategically expands the JV’s connectivity to data centers and other establishments in the country. 

Also Watch | ‘Bread in India is a big joke; brown, multigrain, wholewheat breads pretend to be healthy when they are not,’ claims YouTuber FoodPharmer months after his attack on Bournvita and Maggi