India Data‑Centre Boom Could Outpace Schneider’s Whole Business

Schneider Electric sees its Indian data‑centre arm growing faster than any other part of the company. The French group expects that, as India ramps up from about 1. 5 GW of data‑centre capacity to between six and eight GW, its India unit could become the company’s largest business in three to five years. The forecast aligns with earlier comments from Deepak Sharma, Schneider’s Managing Director for Greater India. In spring he called the opportunity “exponential, ” noting that while data centres are not yet Schneider’s biggest line in India, they will likely lead the next growth wave. Globally, data centres already supply roughly 30 % of Schneider’s €40 bn revenue. India is a special case: it creates and consumes about 20 % of the world’s data but hosts only 3 % of global data‑centre capacity. That mismatch has sparked a rush of large AI projects, including Google’s $15 bn hub in Visakhapatnam, Adani Group’s $100 bn decade‑long build‑out, and Microsoft’s and Amazon’s multi‑tens‑of‑billions India programmes. Schneider is positioning itself to benefit from these projects. It bought the remaining 35 % of its Indian subsidiary, SEIPL, from Temasek last year for €5. 5 bn, speeding up local decision‑making. India is now Schneider’s third‑largest market, with about 38 000 employees and 31 factories that export to more than 30 countries. The buy‑out adds roughly €150 m to its 2026 financing costs.The company’s first‑quarter 2026 revenue rose 11. 2 % to €9. 77 bn, with its energy‑management segment—providing power and cooling for data centres—up nearly 13 %. Meanwhile, the combined AI capital‑expenditure of major US hyperscalers is expected to exceed $650 bn, feeding long‑dated orders for grid‑to‑rack power equipment that Schneider sells. India’s role in this flow is twofold: geography and economics. Deployment cost per megawatt in India is at least 30 % below the global average, pushing builders beyond Mumbai and Chennai into tier‑two and tier‑three cities. Edge sites for low‑latency AI workloads are the next frontier. Challenges remain, such as rising copper and silver prices that Schneider passes on to customers, plus potential supply‑chain disruptions from regional conflicts. Power availability also stays a key constraint. Schneider’s bet is that India will reach six to eight GW of data‑centre capacity, most of it built by the decade’s end, and that its equipment will power those sites. Upcoming quarters will test whether orders match the optimistic outlook.