Reliance Industries has announced an investment in Brookfield Infrastructure and Digital Realty to build data centers in India. Reliance will buy 33.33 percent stake in India-based companies Brookfield and Digital Realty. The proposed investment is Rs 378 crore, which can be increased to Rs 622 crore later as per requirement. The deal is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in approximately 3 months.
Digital Realty Trust and Brookfield Infrastructure’s joint venture creates critical infrastructure for digital services companies in India. This joint venture deploys high-quality, highly-connected and on-demand scalable data centers. After this agreement, Reliance will be an equal partner in this joint venture. The new joint venture will be rebranded as ‘Digital Connection: A Brookfield, Jio and Digital Realty Company’.
The joint venture (JV) is currently building data centers at major locations in Chennai and Mumbai. The JV’s first 20 megawatt (MW) greenfield data center (MAA10) at a 100 MW complex in Chennai is expected to be completed by the end of 2023, Reliance said in a statement. The JV recently announced the acquisition of 2.15 acres of land for setting up a 40 MW data center in Mumbai.
Commenting on the deal, Kiran Thomas, CEO, Jio Platforms Limited said, “We are extremely excited to partner with Digital Realty and our existing and trusted partner Brookfield. This partnership will help our enterprise and SMB customers deliver state-of-the-art, plug-and-play solutions delivered from the cloud and help them lead their digital transformation and make them more competitive and efficient. We would like to thank the Government of India for giving infrastructure status to data centers and creating a supportive ecosystem for their development and operations, which is critical to India’s vision to become a $1 trillion digital economy by 2025.
