Data centre giant AirTrunk, founded by Bangladesh-born Australian billionaire Robin Khuda, has announced plans to invest $30 billion in India's digital infrastructure sector, positioning the company at the forefront of the country's growing artificial intelligence (AI) and cloud computing ecosystem.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed the initiative on June 5, sharing photographs with Khuda on his official X account.
According to Modi, AirTrunk plans to invest approximately Rs3 lakh crore (around $30 billion) and develop 5GW of data centre capacity across India.
"India's digital infrastructure journey is gathering remarkable momentum," Modi said.
"This is among the largest proposed investments in the country's digital infrastructure ecosystem."
He said the investment would strengthen India's position as a global hub for cloud computing and AI, while creating jobs, supporting local supply chains and accelerating innovation-led growth.
The Blackstone-backed hyperscale operator aims to deploy the full investment by 2030. The project will span multiple Indian states and union territories to meet rising demand for cloud services and AI computing.
A 5GW data centre network represents a significant expansion in computing capacity. Hyperscale facilities are designed for large-scale operations and energy efficiency, supporting hundreds of thousands of servers used to train and run advanced AI models.
The announcement follows AirTrunk's entry into India in April 2026 through the acquisition of Lumina CloudInfra, which provided the company with an initial 600MW development pipeline across Mumbai, Chennai and Hyderabad.
From Dhaka to billionaire status
Born and raised in Dhaka, Khuda moved to Australia in 1997 and studied accounting at the University of Technology Sydney. He later earned an MBA from Manchester Business School and obtained professional accounting qualifications.
Before founding AirTrunk, Khuda held senior leadership roles in the technology and telecommunications sectors. He worked at Fujitsu Australia and New Zealand and later served as chief financial officer of PIPE Networks, overseeing its merger with TPG Telecom.
He subsequently co-founded NEXTDC, which grew into Australia's largest independent data centre operator.
Khuda launched AirTrunk in 2015. Despite relying on personal savings during its early years, the company established Australia's first hyperscale data centres in Sydney and Melbourne by 2017.
In 2024, a consortium led by Blackstone acquired AirTrunk in a landmark $24 billion deal. Khuda remains founder and chief executive officer, leading the company's expansion across the Asia-Pacific and Middle East region.
Today, AirTrunk operates and develops facilities across Sydney, Melbourne, Tokyo, Osaka, Singapore and Johor Bahru in Malaysia. The company recently entered into a strategic partnership with Saudi Arabian AI firm HUMAIN.
With its planned expansion in India, AirTrunk is set to further strengthen its presence across the Asia-Pacific and Middle East while supporting the infrastructure demands of the global digital economy.
Khuda was included in Forbes Asia's list of Australia's 50 richest people in early 2026, with an estimated net worth of $2 billion. He was also named Business Person of the Year by The Australian Financial Review in 2023 and joined the board of the Business Council of Australia in 2025.