RMZ to invest $35 bn over 5 years in data centres, AI infrastructure, housing and commercial real estate; exploring IPO

Real estate firm RMZ Corp plans to invest over $35 billion over the next five years to develop data centres, artificial intelligence factories, mixed-use commercial office developments and housing projects, the company said in a statement on April 13.

The company said the expansion will be funded through a mix of debt and equity, while also indicating it is evaluating an initial public offering (IPO) to secure long-term, permanent capital.

A significant portion of the planned investment, nearly half, is earmarked for digital infrastructure, focusing on building large-scale data centre capacity and AI capabilities, the statement said.

RMZ, in partnership with Colt Technology Services, backed by the family office of Abigail Johnson, is developing co-location data centres across key markets, including Navi Mumbai, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru, the statement said.

Near-term capacity additions include 750 megawatts in Navi Mumbai and close to 500 megawatts in Visakhapatnam, with a long-term goal of reaching 1.5 gigawatts of co-location capacity nationwide. This segment alone will see an investment of $12–15 billion, the company said.

“India currently generates approximately 20 percent of the world's data but accounts for just 2 percent of global data centre capacity. National installed capacity stands at 1.1 to 1.2 gigawatts, against a projected demand of 5 to 7 gigawatts over the next five years. RMZ has constituted a separate entity to develop AI factory capabilities on top of its existing co- location infrastructure, offering GPU as a service to cloud providers and AI companies establishing operations in India,” the statement said.

Also Read: Signature Global and RMZ join forces to invest ₹7,500 crore in Gurugram’s commercial hub

GCC-led office demand to drive commercial expansion

RMZ said the remaining capital will be deployed across commercial real estate, with a strong focus on Global Capability Centres (GCCs), which continue to drive office demand in India.

RMZ currently operates across major office markets, including Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Gurgaon, Mumbai, Pune, and Chennai, and is targeting around 20% of annual office absorption in the country.

“The group is also deploying capital into retail formats built around experiential programming, luxury business and leisure hospitality, industrial and logistics assets, and Signature Offices, its institutionalised office-for-ownership product that allows retail and institutional investors to directly own grade-A commercial office assets,” the statement said.

Also Read: RMZ partners with MMRDA, CIDCO at Davos to facilitate up to $30 billion in investments in the Mumbai region

IPO plans

As part of its long-term capital strategy, RMZ is also exploring a potential public listing to access permanent capital.

“The way we look at it, we need permanency of capital. And the only way you can get permanent capital is if you tap into the public markets. So all these years, we have built partnerships along with some great sovereign pension funds and strategic investors, and that has gotten us to where we are today,” Manoj Menda, co-founder and chairman, Supervisory Board of RMZ, said.

With $20 billion in gross assets across six cities, the company currently partners with companies like Qatar Investment Authority, CPP Investments, Brookfield, Mitsui Fudosan, Prologis via RMZ NXT, and Colt DCS.