Cloud region record · Enriched · Verified 22 Oct 2026
Microsoft India South Central — HyderabadMicrosoft's fourth India cloud region · three availability zones
Record PRJ-015Telangana — HyderabadTier B — no capacity disclosed13 public sources cross-checked
Live 6 Aug 2026No MW publishedCloud regionZero cooling water
3
Availability zones
6 Aug 2026
Generally available
0L
Water for cooling
~1.1
Claimed PUE
630MW
Renewables flowing
20.5bn
India commitment, all regions
Microsoft's India South Central region in Hyderabad reached general availability on 6 August 2026 — its fourth cloud region in India and, by the company's own description, its largest. Three availability zones, built to Indian seismic-zone and regulatory requirements, cooled by air-cooled chillers that use no water at all. It is the first concrete delivery against a US$20.5 billion India commitment. Microsoft has published no capacity figure in megawatts — for this region or any other in India.
1At a glance
Record ID
PRJ-015 — Gridvik India Data Centre Registry
Record
Microsoft India South Central cloud region — a service deployment, not a facility
Operator
Microsoft — owned and operated region (not a partner facility)
Location
Hyderabad, Telangana
State
Telangana
Region name
India South Central
Status
Live — generally available 6 August 2026. Formally inaugurated and designated a strategic hub for Asia and the Global South on 21 September 2026
Architecture
Three Availability Zones — physically separated data-centre clusters with independent power, cooling and networking, and under 2 ms latency between zones
Design basis
Built to India's regulatory requirements and seismic-zone conditions for mission-critical workloads
Cooling
Air-cooled chillers, effectively zero water consumed for cooling — Microsoft's next-generation design
Capacity
Not disclosed. Microsoft publishes no MW figure for any of its India regions. A third-party estimate puts regional IT load at 150 MW, which Gridvik flags as unverified
Record type
cloud_region — a service availability statement. Carries no facility capacity
Gridvik tier
B — no capacity disclosed. Commercially and technically important, but not quantifiable from public data
2What Microsoft actually published
This is the clearest example in the registry of an operator announcing a great deal while disclosing almost nothing measurable. The list below is exhaustive for the announcement.
Every quantitative claim Microsoft made about this region
Claim
Value
Unit of measure
Availability zones
3
Count
Region count in India
4 owned, plus 2 Jio partner
Count
Physical size
"roughly equivalent to two Eden Gardens stadiums combined"
No sq ft
Water for cooling
Effectively zero
Design claim
PUE
About 1.1, per a company-side briefing
Unconfirmed
Renewables contracted in India
More than 1,000 MW, of which 630 MW is flowing
Portfolio
Latency between zones
Under 2 ms
Spec
Capacity
Nothing
Absent
Gridvik read — 'largest in India' with no number attached
Microsoft calls this its largest hyperscale region in India, and the phrase is repeated in every news report. Not one of those reports contains a capacity figure, because Microsoft did not give one. The word 'largest' is being used without a denominator.
The comparison Microsoft did give is area, not power — two Eden Gardens stadiums — and even that is a simile rather than a measurement, with no square footage attached. For a vendor sizing an opportunity, this region is effectively unquantified.
The only hard number in the entire announcement is renewable energy procurement: over 1,000 MW contracted, 630 MW flowing. That is a portfolio figure across all Indian operations, not this campus.
3Zero water — the engineering change that matters
Figure 1Renewable capacity Microsoft has contracted in India, against what is already operating. This is the only large number in the Hyderabad announcement, and it covers the whole India portfolio rather than this campus.
What changed
The region uses enhanced mechanical cooling with air-cooled chillers that consume effectively no water for cooling — part of Microsoft's next-generation datacentre design announced in 2024
Why it matters in India
Evaporative cooling is the standard Indian data-centre approach because it is cheap and efficient. It is also water-intensive, and water is the binding constraint in and around Hyderabad. A zero-water design removes that constraint but costs energy
The efficiency trade-off
Air-cooled chillers typically use more electricity than evaporative systems, which pushes PUE up. Microsoft claims about 1.1 despite this, which is either a genuine engineering achievement or a favourable operating condition — Gridvik cannot verify which
Water stewardship claim
Microsoft is funding groundwater recharge, rainwater harvesting and watershed work around Hyderabad, including about 5 million litres of recharge capacity
What this means for the equipment market
This is the most commercially significant fact in the record. A zero-water design means no cooling towers, no water treatment plant, no blowdown, and no evaporative condensers — and instead a much larger air-cooled chiller plant, larger fans, more heat-rejection area and a larger electrical distribution burden. It changes which vendors get paid, not just how much
Free cooling hours
Hyderabad's climate gives limited economiser hours. The design therefore leans on mechanical cooling year-round, which raises both installed chiller capacity and maintenance scope
4Customers signed at launch
HDFC Bank
Using the Hyderabad region as a disaster recovery site, complementing its existing Central India footprint. This is the strongest kind of anchor: a regulated bank with a documented DR requirement
Adani Group
Described as using the region to support its digital transformation — Adani is also an Indian data-centre operator, which makes the endorsement notable
Bajaj Finserv / Bajaj Finance
Using the region to strengthen data residency and support AI adoption
PB Pay
Named among early access customers
What the list tells you
Every named customer is a large Indian enterprise, not a global hyperscaler or an AI startup. This region is being sold on residency, compliance and disaster recovery — the workloads that must sit in India — rather than on frontier-AI training
Sovereign angle
Microsoft positions the region as sovereign-ready, aligned to MeitY guidelines and to the DPDP framework, RBI and CERT-In guidance. Sovereign Public Cloud is available across its India regions, with Sovereign Private Cloud on Azure Local for connected and air-gapped operations
Sector signal
A bank committing its DR to a new region on day one is a procurement signal: DR-driven tenants require duplicate infrastructure, which raises the redundancy spec and the equipment count per MW
5Investment — what the US$20.5 bn is and is not
The most misquoted number in Indian data centres
The US$20.5 billion is Microsoft's total India commitment, and it is not a data-centre number. It combines US$3 billion announced in January 2025 with US$17.5 billion announced in December 2025, and it funds cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling and ongoing operations across the whole country.
It is not allocated to Hyderabad. Microsoft's own December 2025 release describes the Hyderabad region as the centrepiece of the programme, but no share of the money has been assigned to it, and the $17.5 bn covers four calendar years, 2026 to 2029, across every region.
Of the earlier US$3 billion, Microsoft said roughly US$2.5 billion had already been invested by December 2025. That is the only spend figure the company has given, and it is retrospective.
The US$17.5 bn runs across calendar years 2026 to 2029
Already invested
About US$2.5 bn of the earlier US$3 bn, as of December 2025
Scope
Cloud and AI infrastructure, skilling programmes and ongoing operations — not data-centre capex alone
How it compares
Described by Microsoft as its largest investment in Asia
What cannot be derived
No per-region share, no per-campus capex, no MW implied, and no equipment budget. Any figure claiming to be 'Microsoft's Hyderabad investment' is an allocation someone invented
6Timeline
Microsoft commits US$3 billion to India for cloud and AI infrastructure.
Microsoft announces US$17.5 billion over 2026–2029 — its largest investment in Asia — and says the Hyderabad India South Central region will go live mid-2026 as its largest in India, with three availability zones.
Microsoft executive says the Hyderabad build is on track for mid-2026 and will be the largest in India, without disclosing capacity.
India South Central reaches general availability — Microsoft's fourth India cloud region, after Pune, Chennai and Mumbai, alongside two Jio partner regions.
Microsoft formally inaugurates the region and designates it a strategic hub for Asia and the Global South. Confirms effectively zero water for cooling, and 630 MW of the 1,000 MW renewable contracts already flowing.
Public inauguration event reported; additional Azure and AI services to roll out over time.
The remainder of the US$17.5 bn to be deployed. No regional breakdown published
7Procurement
Read this before the table
The region is live, so the base build is done and the packages are placed. The live opportunity is expansion — Microsoft says it will continue expanding — plus the services and fit-out layer for additional AI capability rolling out over time. Everything below is a Gridvik estimate.
Procurement window and scope
Gridvik assessment · 22 Oct 2026
Order window
Expansion only, and undated. Microsoft has said it will continue expanding its India regions, and has designated Hyderabad a strategic hub for Asia and the Global South, which implies further build. No expansion capacity, schedule or tender has been published.
Procurement heat
Low for new vendors, high for incumbents. Microsoft's supply chain is global, framework-based and highly consolidated. An Indian vendor without an existing global approval has very little chance of entering at the expansion stage.
Who buys
Microsoft centrally, through global procurement frameworks rather than site-level purchasing. Local content is generally limited to civil works, installation labour and some local services — which is where the realistic opportunity sits for most Indian firms
DG / gensets (indicative)
Not estimable. No MW figure exists for this region. A third-party estimate of 150 MW of regional IT load at N+1 would imply roughly 120–145 gensets, but the underlying capacity number is unverified
UPS (indicative)
Tier-3-equivalent concurrent maintainability implied by three availability zones with independent power and cooling. Not itemised
Cooling (indicative)
Air-cooled chillers and zero water. No cooling towers, no evaporative condensers, no water treatment plant. Larger air-cooled chiller plant, larger heat-rejection footprint and higher fan energy than an equivalent evaporative design. This is the specification shift worth knowing about
Categories in scope
Air-cooled chillers · CRAH and fan walls · DG and gensets · UPS · HV/MV switchgear · PDUs and busway · racking and containment · structured cabling and fibre · fire detection and suppression · BMS/DCIM · water recharge and harvesting works · renewable PPAs and storage
Decision role
Public decision roles — in GridFeed
Stage-change history
Dated change log — in GridFeed
All estimates are labelled as estimates. No tender dates claimed, no private contact data published.
Live date, zone count, region count, cooling design, seismic and regulatory basis, latency, PUE claim, early customers, renewable contracts, investment tranches
What is derived
Only the procurement section
Capacity
None recorded. The registry carries this record with no MW because Microsoft has published none. The 150 MW third-party estimate is quoted in the limits section as an estimate, not adopted as a figure
Additivity rule
Not applicable. A cloud region is a service footprint, not a facility with a capacity number. It is never summed with anything
Investment attribution
The US$20.5 bn is a national commitment across cloud, AI, skilling and operations. It is never presented as this region's capex
Relationship to PRJ-016
PRJ-016 records Microsoft's national India data-centre network, of which this region is one part. The two must not be added
9Limits and open questions
Capacity
Not disclosed by the operator, for this or any India region. The 150 MW figure circulating is a third-party estimate
Site
The region is in Hyderabad. The specific campus, or campuses, and whether Microsoft owns or leases the buildings, are not disclosed
Building count
An availability zone is a cluster, not a building. The number of facilities in each zone is unknown
PUE
About 1.1 is a company-side claim from a briefing. Not independently verified
Power supply
The DISCOM, the substation rating and the grid connection date are not published
Supplier relationships
Whether Microsoft's Hyderabad capacity is entirely self-built or partly leased from Indian operators — including AdaniConneX, which has an announced Microsoft partnership for Hyderabad and Pune — is not disclosed
What we will not claim
No MW, no PUE, no building count, no tenancy mix and no expansion schedule
10Sources
This record was compiled entirely from publicly available sources, cross-checked against one another.
Microsoft Source Asia, India South Central GA·Microsoft Source Asia, September 2026 India capabilities release·Microsoft Source Asia, US$17.5 bn India investment·Reuters·Business Standard·Economic Times Datacenters·Forbes India·CNBC·The Next Web·Unite.AI·Quartz·News18·Telangana Tribune·Windows Forum
Gridvik does not publish source URLs on record pages; citations are retained in the internal source register and are available on request.
What this page is, and what it is not
This is a public-source record of a cloud-service launch. The engineering and commercial facts are attributed to Microsoft and the trade press; the capacity simply does not exist in public form.
The procurement section is labelled as estimation. No tender insider information, no private contact data, no operator-paid placement. Corrections are free and published with a date.
