Equinix has announced its further expansion in India with the digital infrastructure giant’s first data centre project in Chennai and fifth overall in the country.

With an initial investment of $65 million, the data centre will span nearly 6 acres (2.4 hectares) in Chennai’s southern Siruseri suburb and is set to open in the fourth quarter of this year, NASDAQ-listed Equinix said in a release. 

Dubbed CN1, the facility is designed to support the needs of enterprises and hyperscalers, including AI deployments.

Strong interest from global players is driving India’s growing status as a pivotal data centre hub in South Asia, said Equinix India managing director Manoj Paul.

“Equinix has the most hyperconnected data centre campus in Mumbai with the largest concentration of cloud on-ramps, telecom service providers, over-the-top media service providers, internet exchanges and financial ecosystem,” Paul said.