Analyst's Diary: Swapping homes for data centres

The farther we look, the more our quest for profitable ideas leads us to artificial intelligence—such is the ecstasy around this industry. Our September 2024 issue talked about how the AI boom is leading to a surge in demand for data centres, or facilities for storing and processing large amounts of data. And we laid a list of companies that are set to ride the tailwinds. Anant Raj was one of them. But it deserved a story of its own. It is a real estate player, eyeing to reap AI gains by building data centres on its land. The growth projections are astronomical. Data centres will generate Rs 3,300 crore in revenue five years from now, as per its claim. We detail the company's efforts and analyse the ambitious claim: The game plan Big expansion for big revenue: The company has planned to devote over 4 million square feet of area in Delhi-NCR to develop data centres. Over the next five years, about 307 MW of data centre capacity is meant to come up over the allotted region. Its current capacity of 6 MW generates Rs 65 crore in revenue and Rs 54 crore in EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation). This translate