HYDERABAD: Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments) has committed an investment of up to ₹7,000 crore (C$1 billion) in Hyderabad-based CtrlS Datacenters Ltd as demand for cloud, hyperscale and artificial intelligence-ready datacentre capacity accelerates in India’s digital infrastructure sector.As part of this, CPP Investments already picked up an 8.2% stake in CtrlS for 4,000 crore at a pre-money valuation of ₹44,914 crore, or about C$6.6 billion, CtrlS and CPP Investments said on Wednesday.In addition to this, CPP will invest 3,000 crore in setting up a joint venture to develop hyperscale datacentre campuses across India. CtrlS founder and chief executive Sridhar Pinnapureddy said the partnership with CPP Investments would help CtrlS scale capacity as India enters a new phase of AI-led infrastructure demand.“India’s AI moment is not on the horizon, it is already here. The demand signals from hyperscalers, cloud service providers and enterprises are clear and unmistakable,” he said. Pinnapureddy told TOI that the first of the hyperscale data centre campuses to be set up by the joint venture would most likely be in Navi Mumbai.He said the company has about 4.4 GW of projects at various stages of execution, including planning, permissions and construction, and the company expects to see about 5 GW of capacity go live over the next five years. “We expect to grow from 11 cities to 20-22 cities over the next two to three years,” he said.Pinnapureddy said CtrlS is building two large campuses in Chandanvelly and Future City on Hyderabad’s outskirts, with planned capacities of about 1.4 GW and 2 GW, respectively. The company is also ramping up its hiring with plans to grow to around 3,000 people over the next four months or so from around 1,850 headcount currently.Max Biagosch, senior managing director and global head of real assets at CPP Investments, said India is a key part of the pension fund’s global datacentre strategy.“Demand for datacentre infrastructure in India continues to accelerate, driven by hyperscale expansion, strong domestic cloud growth and emerging AI-led demand. This partnership with CtrlS positions us to scale high-quality infrastructure and deliver long-term value for CPP contributors and beneficiaries,” he said.
