Moody’s has reported that India’s rapidly growing data centre industry will add only 0.13% to the country’s gross domestic product by 2030. Despite billions of rupees being invested, the sector’s heavy dependence on imported equipment and its capital intensive nature limit domestic value creation. Most spending goes into servers, semiconductors, cooling systems and IT hardware sourced from abroad, which reduces the multiplier effect on the economy.
During the construction phase, data centres are expected to contribute 0.10% to GDP in 2025, with an additional 0.03% coming from power generation. Employment gains remain modest, with construction jobs accounting for 0.01% of industry employment and rising to 0.02% once operations begin. Power demand is projected to stay below 5% of India’s total electricity consumption by 2030, which Moody’s believes can be managed with timely transmission upgrades.
In comparison, Malaysia expects far higher GDP impact from similar investments, with contributions of 0.86% during construction and 1.75% once operational. Moody’s notes that India remains a top destination for data centre investment in South Asia, but the sector is not yet large enough to materially change national growth. Reducing import dependence and building domestic manufacturing capacity will be crucial to unlock stronger contributions in the future.
