Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), one of the world’s largest pension fund managers with more than C$700 billion in assets under management, has announced a strategic partnership with Hyderabad-headquartered CtrlS Datacenters. As part of the deal, CPP Investments will commit up to C$1 billion (around ₹7,000 crore) to support the company’s expansion in India’s rapidly growing digital infrastructure and data-centre sector. The partnership is structured through both an equity investment in CtrlS and a dedicated hyperscale development platform, giving CPP Investments exposure to existing assets as well as future expansion opportunities across the country.
CtrlS is among India’s largest homegrown data-centre operators and has been pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy. The company had previously unveiled a $2 billion investment programme to scale operations across India and selected international markets. It currently operates 12 data centres across major cities including Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bengaluru, Noida, Lucknow and Patna, with an installed capacity of about 234 MW. Under its expansion roadmap, CtrlS plans to add around 350 MW of new AI- and cloud-ready capacity, taking its overall platform to a significantly larger scale over the next few years.
A key driver behind this expansion is the explosive growth of AI workloads. CtrlS has already outlined plans to deploy next-generation technologies, including liquid cooling systems, AI-optimised HVAC infrastructure, advanced power-management systems and high-efficiency facility designs to support emerging AI and cloud requirements.
In recent years, CtrlS has announced several large-scale projects, including a ₹10,000 crore AI data-centre cluster proposal in Telangana and a ₹2,200 crore rated-4 data-centre campus in Kolkata. The company has also committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 and is investing in 153 MWp of solar power projects expected to generate around 250,000 MWh of renewable energy annually. CtrlS has also indicated plans to hire more than 1,000 employees over the coming years as it expands its data-centre footprint across India and selected overseas markets.
For CPP Investments, the CtrlS partnership represents a strategic bet on one of the world’s fastest-growing digital infrastructure markets. Global pension funds have increasingly allocated capital to data centres due to their long-term demand visibility, recurring revenues, and central role in the AI economy. For example, earlier this month, Blackstone-backed AirTrunk announced plans to invest $30 billion (around ₹2.5 lakh crore) in India by 2030 to develop 5 GW of AI-focused data-centre capacity. Meanwhile, Reliance Industries, through its Digital Connexion venture with Brookfield and Digital Realty, has also unveiled a $11 billion (around ₹95,000 crore) plan to build a 1GW AI-native data-centre campus in Visakhapatnam.
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Ashutosh is a Senior Writer at The Tech Portal, largely reporting on new tech, and intersection of technology and business. Ashutosh’s career spans across nearly a decade of technology writing across multiple platforms and languages.
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