The largest building in Nxtra’s Bengaluru cluster is the one the operator describes least. DC2 is listed at 20 MW of IT power across 4,000 racks — 5 kW a rack, PUE below 1.55 — which is 44% of the operator’s 45.4 MW in the city. Its locality is not stated anywhere on the operator’s page, and directory listings attach a different project to the same name: a planned 450,000 square foot, 40 MW, 5,000-rack campus called Bengaluru II. Those numbers do not match this card, and no public source explains the difference.
1At a glance
220 MW and no address
Twenty megawatts is a large building. Not knowing where it is makes it hard to sell to, finance against or assess for water and power risk — and that is the whole point of recording it.
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Capacity | 20 MW of IT power, stated |
| Rack count | 4,000, stated |
| Density | 5 kW a rack, derivable |
| PUE | below 1.55, declared |
| City | Bengaluru, stated |
| Locality | Not stated. Three other Nxtra Bengaluru buildings do have localities — Whitefield and two at Hoskote |
| Commissioning date | Not stated |
| Occupancy | Not stated |
| Tenant | Not stated |
| Water source | Not stated, in a city where water is the binding constraint on data centre growth |
The water omission matters more in Bengaluru than anywhere else in the registry. Karnataka’s own data centre policy is built around treated water allocations — 60 MLD offered at Hoskote and hundreds of millions of litres discussed statewide — because freshwater in Bengaluru is scarce and contested. A 20 MW building consumes water for cooling regardless of where it is, and the public record does not say where this one draws it from.
There are three plausible readings of the silent locality. It is a building on one of the two existing sites that has been renamed. It is the planned Bengaluru II campus at an earlier stage of fit-out. Or it is a separate site the operator has chosen not to publicise. Gridvik records the capacity and the gap.
3Bengaluru against the rest of the platform
With four cards added, Bengaluru completes the picture of Nxtra’s large clusters — and reveals that this cluster is shaped differently from the others.
| Cluster | MW | Racks | kW a rack | Character |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mumbai | 71 | 6,900 | 10.3 | two modern AI-grade halls plus two legacy sites |
| Chennai | 46 | about 5,400 stated for one building | 5.0 at the largest hall | cable hub, conventional density |
| Bengaluru | 45.4 | 9,800 | 4.6 | many enterprise tenants, many racks, little power |
| Delhi NCR | 38.5 | 8,050 | 4.8 | mature market, legacy density |
The comparison is the useful output. Bengaluru and Delhi NCR run at about 4.5 kW a rack; Mumbai runs at 10.3. Same company, same country, and a factor of two in what a cabinet can carry. The difference is not technology — it is when the buildings were built and what the tenants in each city buy.
For anyone forecasting where Indian AI capacity will physically land, that table is a warning. The installed base in the two largest enterprise markets is structurally unable to host high-density tenancies without rebuilding. That is why new AI announcements keep appearing as greenfield campuses rather than as expansions of existing halls — there is nothing on the existing floors to expand.
4The 40 MW that is not this building
Directory listings describe a Bengaluru II campus of 40 MW across 5,000 racks in 450,000 square feet. The operator’s four cards total 45.4 MW across 9,800 racks for the entire city. Both statements are about Nxtra Bengaluru and they cannot both be right.
| Reading | What it would mean |
|---|---|
| The 40 MW is a future campus | Nxtra intends to build a single 40 MW building at Hoskote or elsewhere, taking the cluster toward 85 MW. The cards describe what exists today |
| The 40 MW is DC2 described differently | The largest card, at 20 MW, is half the 40 MW figure — which does not reconcile without an expansion |
| The 40 MW is stale | An earlier plan that was superseded by four smaller buildings totalling 45.4 MW |
Gridvik records the four published cards and declines to adopt the 40 MW campus description. The registry’s number for Nxtra Bengaluru is 45.4 MW, and it will change only when the operator publishes a fifth card or a campus statement.
The wider lesson is one this registry keeps repeating. An operator’s own facility cards are the most reliable public source available, and even they do not reconcile with the descriptions in circulation. Anyone building a market model on directory data is building it on a stack of unresolved duplicates.
A 20 MW building with no stated locality cannot be assessed for grid capacity, water allocation or flood risk — three things that decide whether it can actually run at 20 MW.
It can still be sold to. It cannot be underwritten without asking the operator directly.
5Timeline
- Nxtra develops its Bengaluru estate across Whitefield and Hoskote, adding buildings as enterprise demand grows
- The operator lists a facility called DC2 at 20 MW across 4,000 racks with a declared PUE below 1.55 and no stated locality
- Directory listings describe a planned Bengaluru II campus of 450,000 square feet, 5,000 racks and 40 MW, which does not reconcile with any single card
- Karnataka announces 1,000 MW of sustainable data parks and then a Sustainable Data Centre Policy targeting 1 GW of IT capacity by 2031
- No locality, commissioning date, occupancy figure or tenant name for DC2 in the public record
6Procurement
7Limits and open questions
8Sources
Sources: Nxtra Bengaluru data centre page, Nxtra by Airtel site, DataCenterMap Bangalore listings, DataCenterLocations, DataCenterHawk, Data Center Dynamics on Nxtra’s Karnataka facilities, Karnataka government data park and policy announcements.