Australia’s AirTrunk enters India with Lumina CloudInfra acquisition as AI data centre race heats up

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AirTrunk has entered India’s fast-growing digital infrastructure market after announcing the acquisition of Lumina CloudInfra, giving the hyperscale data centre platform an immediate foothold in one of the world’s biggest growth markets for cloud and AI capacity.

The deal hands AirTrunk access to Lumina’s development pipeline, customer relationships, contracts and operational capability in India, including about 600 megawatts of planned capacity that AirTrunk says represents up to US$5 billion in future development potential.

The acquisition also sharply expands AirTrunk’s regional footprint. Post-deal, the company says it will have more than 3GW of operating and planned capacity across 20 campuses in six markets: Australia, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong and now India. The platform will continue to be supported by long-term capital from Blackstone and CPPIB, underlining the scale of investor backing behind its next phase of growth.

For AirTrunk, the India move is as much about timing as geography. In announcing the deal, founder and chief executive Robin Khuda said, India is one of the largest and fastest-growing markets for hyperscale and AI infrastructure in the world.

“By acquiring Lumina CloudInfra, we are uniquely positioned to deliver the scale, speed, and performance our customers need as they expand across the APAC region.”

India’s appeal is obvious. AirTrunk says national installed data centre capacity is expected to rise from about 1.5GW in 2025 to around 10GW by 2030, driven by rising cloud adoption, 5G expansion, tighter data sovereignty requirements and the world’s largest mobile user base. The company also pointed to India’s push to build sovereign AI capability through the IndiaAI Mission.

The Indian government says the mission, launched in March 2024, is designed to build a robust AI ecosystem, expand access to compute and support India-centric AI solutions, with more than 38,000 GPUs already empanelled through 14 service providers and further expansion underway.

Lumina brings established operations in three of India’s key data centre markets: Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad. Its co-founder and chief executive, Sujeet Deshpande, said the company was entering its next chapter as a scaled operator with “strong local capabilities”, adding that the tie-up would combine local execution with AirTrunk’s global strength in design, construction, operations, technology and customer access.

“Together, our teams will grow, delivering greater consistency, scale and opportunity for our people, customers, and partners.”

Blackstone, which already had exposure to both platforms, framed the transaction as a bigger strategic play on digital infrastructure. Peng Wei Tan, Blackstone’s senior managing director for real estate, said the partnership expands its data centre portfolio and reinforces one of the firm’s highest-conviction themes, “digital infrastructure”.

Blackstone has previously described AirTrunk as the largest data centre platform in Asia-Pacific and said its investment strategy is increasingly focused on the infrastructure needed to support AI growth.

The deal lands at a moment when India is trying to position itself as both a digital economy powerhouse and a sovereign AI player. For AirTrunk, it is a high-stakes bet that demand for large-scale, AI-ready campuses in India will keep accelerating. For the broader market, it is another sign that the race to secure power, land and scale in Asia’s next major data centre battleground is only getting more intense.

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