Bihar, a state not usually mentioned in India’s data centre story, is getting its first big AI infrastructure push. CtrlS Datacenters has signed a Letter of Intent (LoI) with the Bihar government to invest ₹10,000 crore in a 150 MW hyperscale “AI factory” in Bodh Gaya, and on October 13 it opened a ₹400 crore data centre in Patna.

Patna facility opens

The Patna data centre sits in the Patliputra Industrial Area and was inaugurated in the presence of Chief Minister Samrat Choudhary. It starts with an IT load of 12 MW, which the company says can expand with demand. Built on a greenfield site, it is designed for AI and cloud workloads and will serve enterprises, government bodies, hyperscalers and technology firms in Bihar and eastern India. CtrlS describes it as built to withstand natural disasters, with high-grade security and energy-efficient operation.

What is planned in Bodh Gaya

The larger project is still at the intent stage. The LoI covers a ₹10,000 crore investment in a 150 MW hyperscale AI facility in Bodh Gaya. An LoI signals a plan and does not itself commit either side to a schedule, and the reports reviewed here give no construction timeline, land details, power arrangements, job numbers, GPU counts or specifics of the state incentives involved.

Sridhar Pinnapureddy, founder and CEO of CtrlS Datacenters, said: “We are committed to strengthening Bihar’s digital infrastructure.” He also thanked the state government for its policy environment and “attractive incentives,” and said that, with ecosystem partners, the company is bringing significant investment to Bihar and creating new employment opportunities. Senior state officials, including IT Minister Nitish Mishra and Industries Minister Shreyasi Singh, attended the event.

Where this fits

CtrlS began operations in 2007 and runs 19 data centres across nine Indian markets. It plans more than 4.4 GW of capacity by 2030, over 20 edge data centres in tier-2 and tier-3 cities in the coming years, and is exploring Southeast Asia and the Middle East, with Thailand as its first overseas market.

The Bihar plan lands as India builds out data centre capacity quickly. India generates nearly a fifth of the world’s digital data but has only about 3 per cent of global data centre capacity, according to government figures cited by AFP, which is the argument governments make for building fast. Large projects have also drawn scrutiny over land, water and power in other states, such as Andhra Pradesh, so how Bodh Gaya handles those questions will be watched.

What to watch

The terms of the LoI converting into a definitive agreement, the timeline and power supply for Bodh Gaya, how much of the ₹10,000 crore is committed and over what period, and how many jobs the project actually creates.