Vultr launches 20-MW AI supercluster in Chennai; aims 1 GW capacity by 2029

U.S.-based cloud infrastructure provider Vultr on Monday announced the launch of a 20-megawatt (MW) artificial intelligence (AI) supercluster in Chennai, powered by AMD Instinct MI355X graphics processing units (GPUs), marking its largest such deployment in India.

The facility, expected to house around 10,000 GPUs in its initial configuration, will be among Vultr’s two largest AMD AI infrastructure deployments globally, alongside its Springfield facility in Ohio.

Designed to support large language model and foundation model training, fine-tuning and high-throughput inference, the facility will cater to AI labs, startups, enterprises, research institutions and universities. It will use AMD’s ROCm open software ecosystem, providing developers access to AI frameworks, libraries and models.

Vultr plans to expand capacity in 2027 with AMD’s MI455X GPUs and Helios rack-scale AI architecture.

The company is targeting 600 MW of AI infrastructure capacity in India by 2028 and gigawatt scale by 2029, although it has not committed to firm timelines.

“I would be disappointed if we don’t have 600 megawatt live by 2028, and then get into gigawatt by 2029,” said Amit Rai, General Manager – AI and Enterprise Cloud at Vultr.

Chief Marketing Officer Kevin Cochrane said the company’s expansion plans over the next two to three years would be an “order of magnitude greater” than its current deployment.

He told The Hindu that global enterprises had already pre-reserved a substantial portion of the Chennai facility’s capacity, without disclosing their identities or the quantum booked.

“We do have some global enterprises that have pre-reserved a lot of the capacity that won’t be sold through to digital startups and made available to universities here,” he said.

Vultr did not disclose the investment involved in the Chennai project or its existing data centre operations in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bengaluru. The company has more than 10,000 active customers in India.

On power availability, Mr. Cochrane said the Tamil Nadu government had enabled 150 MW of connected power at the location, of which 20 MW was available for the initial deployment. “The 20 megawatts is available to electrify and light up our racks so that they can start producing value on day one,” he said.

However, the company did not disclose the facility’s cooling technology or projected water consumption, nor provide quantified estimates of its energy efficiency. It said it was working with partners, including real estate developers and data centre operators, and collaborating with server supplier Supermicro on energy-efficient racks.

Vultr, which works with both AMD and Nvidia, said its multi-vendor approach offered customers greater flexibility in choosing GPU infrastructure. Its leadership also claimed customers could save 50-90% on core cloud computing costs compared with traditional hyperscalers, but did not quantify savings on GPU workloads.

The company has hired more than 100 people in India over the past three months and plans thousands of additional hires in network engineering and operations by March. Its Chennai workforce could eventually reach 5,000 as the facility becomes operational and services expand.