Equinix entered India by buying two Mumbai data centres in 2021. It has since built the rest. MB3 opened on 8 April 2026 — its first self-built facility in the city — at an initial investment of over US$95 million, with more than 1,370 cabinets live and a design that scales to more than 5,475. Alongside MB1 and MB2, which together hold more than 1,350 cabinets, the campus is operating at roughly 40% of the cabinet count it is built to reach. Equinix has also quietly opened a fourth Mumbai building, MB4, which Gridvik’s own registry scope did not include.
1At a glance
2Four buildings, an unfinished scope
| Building | Cabinets | How it arrived | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| MB1 | Included in the 1,350 combined with MB2 | Acquired in 2021 | Live |
| MB2 | Included in the 1,350 combined with MB1 | Acquired in 2021; adjacent to MB3 | Live |
| MB3 | 1,370 live, 5,475 at full build | Self-built. Announced 2022, opened April 2026 | Live, expanding |
| MB4 | Not covered by this record | Opened separately; not in the original registry scope | Live |
Gridvik’s master file carried this record as "MB1 to MB3". That scope is now incomplete. Trade coverage of the MB3 opening describes the new building joining the company’s existing Mumbai sites MB1, MB2 and MB4, and the company’s own Mumbai pages list MB1, MB2 and MB3 with more buildings implied.
The record has been re-scoped to state this rather than silently excluded, because a campus total that misses a building is the kind of error that compounds.
MB3 is described in different outlets as the company’s third Mumbai data centre and its fourth in India. Both are right: it is the third Equinix building in Mumbai by sequence and the fourth numbered IBX in the country once MB4 is counted.
For anyone reconciling Equinix capacity, the lesson is to count buildings from the operator’s own pages, not from press releases, because the sequence and the numbering do not match.
3Cabinets across the campus
| Measure | Cabinets | Derived MW at 5 kW |
|---|---|---|
| MB1 and MB2 | more than 1,350 | about 6.8 MW |
| MB3 phase 1 | more than 1,370 | about 6.9 MW |
| Campus live and delivered | about 2,720 | about 13.6 MW |
| MB3 at full build | more than 5,475 | about 27.4 MW |
| Campus at full build | about 6,825 | about 34.1 MW |
| Mumbai market operating capacity | — | about 890 MW |
Two things stand out. The campus is running at about 40% of the cabinet count it is designed to reach, which is normal for a campus that has just added its largest building and will fill it over several years. And at roughly 34 MW when complete, this campus represents about four per cent of Mumbai’s operating capacity — the largest data centre company in the world is a mid-sized participant in India’s largest data centre market.
That is the single most useful strategic fact on this page. India’s market is not dominated by the global incumbents. It is dominated by domestic operators, hyperscalers building for themselves, and the Adani and Reliance groups.
4The $95 million, and what it bought
| June 2022 | April 2026 | |
|---|---|---|
| Initial investment | over $86 million | over $95 million |
| Cabinets, first phase | more than 1,375 | more than 1,370 |
| Cabinets, full build | more than 4,150 | more than 5,475 |
| First phase opening | Q2 2024 | 8 April 2026 |
| Site | four-acre plot, Chandivali | nearly four acres, five storeys, adjacent to MB2 |
Three things moved in four years: the cost went up by about 10%, the cabinet ceiling went up by almost a third, and the opening slipped by roughly two years.
That is a reasonable outcome for a first self-build in a new country. The cost escalation is modest by the standards of any construction project, and the capacity increase suggests the design was improved rather than cut back. The delay is the normal consequence of a company that had never built in India learning to build in India.
5Interconnection is the product
The reason a $95 million building in Chandivali is worth more than its megawatts is that it sells access, not space.
| Asset | Why it matters |
|---|---|
| Cloud on-ramps | MB1 is the only data centre in India hosting direct connect nodes for AWS, Google Cloud and Oracle Cloud simultaneously |
| Internet exchanges | Access to five internet exchanges, which is the reason content, carrier and CDN businesses colocate here |
| Equinix Fabric | Software-defined interconnection to more than 270 Equinix data centres globally, so a Mumbai tenant can reach a partner in Frankfurt without leaving the building |
| Dark fibre | Physically diverse fibre between MB1, MB2 and MB3, creating one logical campus across three sites |
| Ecosystem density | More than 270 customers in India — networks, clouds, content providers, financial firms |
This is why the cost per megawatt here is three times a hyperscale build and why that comparison is misleading. A hyperscale campus sells bulk power to one tenant. A retail IBX sells a thousand small connections to a thousand businesses, and the cross-connects are the margin.
It is also why Equinix keeps buying land in Mumbai rather than building in cheaper states. Interconnection value is geographically trapped. A campus in a cheaper city with no internet exchange and no cloud on-ramp is not a substitute for one in Chandivali, however much the power costs.
6Bought, then built
The sequence of how Equinix built an Indian business is worth recording, because it is a template.
| Date | Move |
|---|---|
| 2021 | Acquires two operating Mumbai data centres, gaining customers, interconnection and internet exchanges on day one rather than after a five-year build |
| June 2022 | Announces MB3, a self-build on a four-acre Chandivali plot, at over $86 million, with a Q2 2024 opening |
| November 2024 | Buys 1.38 acres in Chandivali for ₹155 crore, with an existing building, to expand the campus footprint |
| September 2025 | Opens CN1 in Chennai, its first building outside Mumbai, connecting it to the Mumbai campus for a national proposition |
| 8 April 2026 | Opens MB3, its first self-built Mumbai facility, at over $95 million, taking cumulative India investment to about $365 million |
| April 2026 | States it is holding talks to acquire further land in Mumbai for continued expansion |
The pattern is: buy the ecosystem, then build inside it, then extend the brand to a second city connected to the first. Equinix did not try to win India with megawatts. It bought the interconnection position and has been adding capacity onto it ever since.
For a supplier, Equinix is the most predictable premium buyer in India and the least likely to be won on price. Its specification is set globally, its vendors are largely global, and its Indian builds inherit from both.
The opening is in localisation: anything that must be locally sourced, locally certified or locally serviced is where a new entrant can actually compete.
7Timeline
- Equinix acquires two operating Mumbai data centres, entering India with existing customers, interconnection and internet exchanges.
- Equinix announces MB3, its third Mumbai facility, at over $86 million on a four-acre Chandivali plot. First phase to open in Q2 2024 with more than 1,375 cabinets, scaling to more than 4,150.
- Equinix India buys 5,597 square metres in Chandivali for ₹155 crore, with an existing 5,386 square metre building, registered with the state.
- Chennai CN1 opens, the company’s first Indian building outside Mumbai, interconnected with the Mumbai campus.
- MB3 opens. Over $95 million initial investment, more than 1,370 cabinets, scaling to more than 5,475. Cumulative India investment disclosed at about $365 million across five buildings.
- Campus live with about 2,720 cabinets across MB1 to MB3, with MB4 also operating. About 4,100 further cabinets of MB3 capacity remain unbuilt
8Procurement
Rows with a lock are the paid layer.
9Assumptions and method
10Limits and open questions
11Sources
This record was compiled entirely from publicly available sources, cross-checked against one another.
Equinix newsroom·Equinix India data centre pages·Equinix blog·DatacenterDynamics·The Hindu BusinessLine·LiveMint·Economic Times·Business Standard·CRE Matrix·Hindustan Times·W.Media·Data Centre News India·Construction World·Telecom Economic Times
Gridvik does not publish source URLs on record pages; citations are retained in the internal source register and are available on request.
A campus record where the operator publishes cabinets and not megawatts, and where Gridvik’s own scope turned out to be missing a building. Both are stated.
Corrections are free and published with a date.