New Delhi, Jan. 14 -- BharathCloud has appointed real estate and infrastructure consultancy JLL as its exclusive advisory partner to support the development of AI-ready sovereign cloud infrastructure across India and select international markets.
The company plans to invest up to $100 million over the next five years, subject to board approvals, financing arrangements, regulatory clearances and market conditions. Under the agreement, JLL will advise BharathCloud on colocation site identification, design consultancy and portfolio optimisation for its distributed cloud footprint.
The rollout will span major metros including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Kolkata and Pune, while also targeting Tier-II and Tier-III cities such as Visakhapatnam, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Coimbatore, Kochi, Chandigarh and Bhopal. The initiative is aimed at building edge-ready cloud infrastructure to support enterprise adoption of artificial intelligence, 5G and Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
The JLL partnership follows BharathCloud's earlier collaboration with DE-CIX India, the local arm of the global internet exchange operator. Together, the alliances are intended to create a distributed cloud ecosystem that integrates secure, sovereign cloud infrastructure with high-performance interconnection, positioning BharathCloud as an orchestrator for enterprise edge computing.
According to the company, the combination of BharathCloud's infrastructure and DE-CIX's interconnection platform will help establish what it calls a "digital triangle" in India, enabling enterprises to scale AI- and data-intensive workloads while meeting data sovereignty and compliance requirements.
This strategic partnership with JLL is a key milestone in advancing India-first, enterprise-grade AI cloud infrastructure," said Padma Reddy Sama, co-founder of BharathCloud. "We plan to roll out sovereign, AI-powered cloud centres starting with at least two in every metro and expanding into Tier-II and Tier-III cities, while ensuring high standards of security, scalability, operational efficiency and compliance."
Rachit Mohan, APAC lead for data centre colocation leasing at JLL, said India's data centre market is poised for rapid expansion, driven by AI infrastructure build-outs, cloud adoption, 5G deployment and government-led digital initiatives. "These converging trends are positioning India as a critical hub in the global data centre ecosystem," he said.
BharathCloud said its facilities will be designed with a strong focus on renewable energy use, green building standards and ESG-aligned operations, as enterprises increasingly prioritise sustainability alongside performance and compliance.
India's data centre industry is expected to see a sharp rise in capacity over the next decade, with estimates suggesting an eightfold increase from around 1.25 GW in 2025 to about 10.5 GW by 2035, backed by significant investments in AI training and inference infrastructure.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from TechCircle.