Luxembourg-based Innovation Platform Capital (IPC) has submitted proposals under an IPC Karnataka investment plan worth Rs834.8bn ($8.76bn), covering hyperscale data centres and a large-scale green hydrogen complex across three phases. Karnataka Industries Minister MB Patil confirmed the proposals, which were reported by The Economic Times.
What the IPC Karnataka investment plan involves
The programme spans two flagship projects: a hyperscale data centre development with a planned IT load capacity of 2,500MW, and the Bengaluru-Tumakuru Integrated Green Hydrogen project, which would have a capacity of 1,000MW.
The first phase carries a price tag of Rs171.14bn and is the most detailed of the three stages set out so far. It includes two 200MW data centres alongside a 500MW green hydrogen plant and energy complex. IPC is seeking 1,000 acres of land for this initial phase, with roughly 400 acres allocated to each of the data centre and green hydrogen components. Patil said a further 200 acres have been earmarked for safety measures and environmental safeguards.
Water supply is also built into the plan. The delegation told officials that the projects would require an estimated 13 million litres a day, with around 85% of that expected to come from treated sources.
IPC’s wider green hydrogen ambitions
The Karnataka proposals fit a broader pattern of green hydrogen activity by IPC. According to BioEnergy Times, IPC operates on a USD 10 billion Canadian platform model, and the company has also launched a joint venture to build a UAE green hydrogen platform whose first phase alone represents a USD 1 billion integrated programme spanning the full green hydrogen value chain. That scale of commitment in the Gulf suggests Karnataka is not an isolated project but part of a larger deployment strategy by the firm.
The Indian state’s combination of land availability, proximity to Bengaluru’s technology corridor and existing industrial infrastructure along the Tumakuru belt appears to have shaped the specific project locations IPC has chosen.
Broader FDI context in India
The Karnataka proposals arrive against a backdrop of rising foreign direct investment (FDI) activity across India. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry said this month that India had received 29 FDI proposals worth Rs48.95bn under a revised framework permitting investors from countries sharing a land border with India to hold non-controlling stakes of up to 10%. Those proposals span information technology, artificial intelligence, information and communication, manufacturing, pharmaceuticals, data centres and transport services, with investors based in Mauritius, the US, South Korea, Japan, Singapore, Luxembourg and the Cayman Islands.
The Indian government is also reportedly considering raising the threshold at which FDI proposals require clearance from the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA). Under the current framework, which has been in place since November 2015, proposals above Rs50bn require CCEA sign-off, while those below that level are handled by the relevant ministry. The reported proposal would lift that threshold to Rs150bn, a move that could streamline approvals for a large number of inbound investment applications.
The Economic Times report on Patil’s confirmation of the IPC submission underlines how Karnataka has positioned itself as a destination of choice for capital-intensive, technology-driven projects. The state has attracted interest across data infrastructure and clean energy, sectors that increasingly overlap as the power demands of large-scale computing push developers towards on-site or closely integrated renewable generation.
IPC has not set out a public timeline for phases two and three of the Karnataka plan beyond the first-phase framework. The next concrete milestone will be the resolution of the land allocation and water supply arrangements that underpin the Rs171.14bn opening stage.
