Equinix Opens First AI-Ready Data Center in Chennai

Rhea-AI Summary

Equinix (Nasdaq: EQIX) has announced the opening of its first International Business Exchange (IBX) data center in Chennai, India—CN1. The facility, built with an initial investment of $69 million, will provide 800 cabinets in its first phase and eventually support 4,250 cabinets.

Located in Siruseri, Tamil Nadu, the AI-ready facility features advanced liquid cooling technology and maintains a 99.999% uptime reliability. CN1 will be interconnected with Equinix's Mumbai campus and offers Equinix Fabric® services for hybrid multicloud deployment. The facility strengthens India's position as a key hub for innovation and AI development, providing direct access to cloud service providers like AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, and Oracle Cloud.

Positive

• Initial investment of $69 million demonstrates significant commitment to Indian market expansion
• Facility designed for 99.999% uptime reliability with advanced liquid cooling technology
• Strategic location near submarine cable landing sites enhances connectivity
• Scalable capacity from 800 to 4,250 cabinets shows strong growth potential
• 96% renewable energy coverage aligns with sustainability goals

Negative

• Significant capital expenditure required for full build-out
• Competition from established data center providers in the region
• Distance of 28 kilometers from Central Business District may impact latency for some users

Insights

Data Center Infrastructure Analyst

Equinix's Chennai expansion strengthens its position in India's growing AI market with strategic $69M investment in high-performance infrastructure.

Equinix's new Chennai data center represents a significant strategic expansion in India's rapidly growing digital infrastructure landscape. The $69 million initial investment demonstrates the company's commitment to capitalizing on India's emergence as a key hub for digital innovation and AI development.

The facility's specifications reveal Equinix's forward-thinking approach to infrastructure design. Starting with 800 cabinets but scalable to 4,250 cabinets, the company is positioning for substantial growth. More importantly, the built-in support for liquid cooling technology is critical infrastructure for AI workloads, which require significantly higher power densities than traditional computing. This future-proofs the facility as demand for AI computing continues to accelerate.

Strategically, this expansion creates a multi-node presence in India by connecting Chennai with their existing Mumbai campus. This creates resilience advantages while enabling lower-latency connections to India's southern region and potentially to Southeast Asian markets. The location near submarine cable landing sites enhances its value as an interconnection hub.

For Equinix's business model, which relies heavily on interconnection services rather than just space and power, extending their fabric to Chennai allows them to create network effects within their customer ecosystem. The 99.999% reliability target maintains their premium positioning in the market, allowing them to command higher margins than basic colocation providers.

Notably, Equinix maintains its 96% renewable energy coverage across global operations, including India – increasingly important as data centers face scrutiny for power consumption, especially with AI workloads significantly increasing per-rack power requirements.

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Sept. 19, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX), the world's digital infrastructure company^®, announced the opening of its first International Business Exchange™ (IBX^®) data center in Chennai, India—CN1. Located in Siruseri, Tamil Nadu, on a nearly six-acre plot of land, this new facility will be interconnected with Equinix's Mumbai campus, which consists of three IBX data centers. With its strategic location, rapid cloud adoption and strong data sovereignty framework, India is becoming an essential market for global enterprises seeking to scale digital services and reduce latency for users across the region. The new facility will support local and global businesses by providing direct access to one of the world's fastest-growing digital economies that is driving innovation and AI adoption.

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. 

Highlights/Key Facts: 

• Located in the State Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu (SIPCOT) Ltd land in the Siruseri area, the CN1 campus spreads over nearly six acres of land. The location is approximately 28 kilometers away from the bustling Central Business District, holding a key position near anticipated submarine cable landing sites.
• Equinix CN1 is a four-story building and will ultimately provide a total site capacity of 4,250 cabinets when fully built. The first phase of CN1 provides 800 cabinets.
• CN1 is AI-ready, purpose-built to accommodate advanced liquid cooling solutions, enabling support for high-density, compute-intensive workloads and ensuring scalable infrastructure for future AI and emerging technologies.
• Equinix will provide robust interconnection services at CN1, including software-defined interconnection (Equinix Fabric and Equinix Fabric Cloud Router), to enable customers to directly interconnect with partners and create hybrid multicloud infrastructure easily and securely.
• In 2024, Equinix reached 96% renewables coverage across its global operations, including India.

Supporting Resources: 

• Equinix to Open a Strategic Interconnection Hub in Chennai (Press Release)
• How Liquid Cooling Enables the Next Generation of Tech Innovation (Blog)
• Equinix to "Adjust the Thermostat" to Optimize Data Center Energy Use (Press Release)
• Equinix Collaborates with Leading Alternative Energy Providers to Power AI-Ready Data Center Growth (Press Release)

*Equinix operates five data centers in Shanghai through a strategic partnership.

About Equinix
Equinix, Inc. (Nasdaq: EQIX) shortens the path to boundless connectivity anywhere in the world. Its digital infrastructure, data center footprint and interconnected ecosystems empower innovations that enhance our work, life and planet. Equinix connects economies, countries, organizations and communities, delivering seamless digital experiences and cutting-edge AI—quickly, efficiently and everywhere. 

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from expectations discussed in such forward-looking statements. Factors that might cause such differences include, but are not limited to, risks to our business and operating results related to the current inflationary environment; foreign currency exchange rate fluctuations; stock price fluctuations; increased costs to procure power and the general volatility in the global energy market; the challenges of building and operating IBX and xScale ^® data centers, including those related to sourcing suitable power and land, and any supply chain constraints or increased costs of supplies; the challenges of developing, deploying and delivering Equinix products and solutions; unanticipated costs or difficulties relating to the integration of companies we have acquired or will acquire into Equinix; a failure to receive significant revenues from customers in recently built out or acquired data centers; failure to complete any financing arrangements contemplated from time to time; competition from existing and new competitors; the ability to generate sufficient cash flow or otherwise obtain funds to repay new or outstanding indebtedness; the loss or decline in business from our key customers; risks related to our taxation as a REIT; risks related to regulatory inquiries or litigation and other risks described from time to time in Equinix filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In particular, see recent and upcoming Equinix quarterly and annual reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, copies of which are available upon request from Equinix. Equinix does not assume any obligation to update the forward-looking information contained in this press release.  

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SOURCE Equinix, Inc.

FAQ

What is the capacity of Equinix's new Chennai data center (CN1)?

The CN1 data center will initially provide 800 cabinets in its first phase, with the ability to scale up to 4,250 cabinets when fully built.

How much did Equinix invest in the new Chennai data center?

Equinix made an initial investment of US$69 million in the new Chennai CN1 data center facility.

What special features does Equinix's CN1 data center offer for AI workloads?

CN1 is AI-ready with advanced liquid cooling technology to support high-density, compute-intensive workloads, and offers Equinix Fabric® services for hybrid multicloud deployment.

Where is Equinix's new Chennai data center located?

The CN1 data center is located in Siruseri, Tamil Nadu, approximately 28 kilometers from Chennai's Central Business District, near submarine cable landing sites.

How many data centers does Equinix operate globally?

Equinix operates more than 270 data centers across 77 markets in 36 countries, including more than 60 data centers in the Asia-Pacific region.