Delta Electronics sits at the intersection of power, cooling, and sustainability — the three pillars that will determine whether this ambition succeeds, as India races to build AI-ready infrastructure. CXO XPERTS sat down with Benjamin Lin, President of Delta Electronics India, to understand what the company is building, where it is investing, and how it intends to lead in one of the world’s fastest-growing data centre markets.
How is AI changing the global data centre and infrastructure landscape, and where is Delta focusing its innovation in the next few years?
AI is no longer a buzzword; it is already embedded in our daily lives, and none of this is possible without AI-ready data centres. To support these facilities, two things are critical: highly efficient power supply and advanced cooling. Delta has been investing heavily in both areas, including power solutions for the latest AI chips and CPUs, and next‑generation cooling that can handle their thermal load.
What specific power and cooling technologies is Delta bringing to AI data centres?
On the power side, we are working with customers on modular, high-efficiency solutions for current AI server platforms, including the latest GPU and CPU architectures and negative 400-volt applications. On the cooling side, we have moved beyond traditional air-cooling to liquid cooling, and are already supplying in-rack and sidecar cooling, as well as CDUs, to AI data centres, including those in India.
What does Delta’s manufacturing footprint in India look like today, and how localised is your production?
We currently operate three manufacturing sites in India, with our largest campus in Krishnagiri, Tamil Nadu, spread across about 120 acres with six manufacturing plants. Our plan is to rapidly transfer more data‑centre‑related products into local manufacturing and build a strong local supply chain and partner ecosystem to support this growth.
Beyond manufacturing, how much design and R&D work is done in India?
India is not just a manufacturing base for us; it is also a design centre. Our Bengaluru headquarters houses nearly 450 engineers, and we are allocating more R&D resources specifically to data centre and data‑centre‑related solutions designed in India for both domestic and global markets.
There has been notable activity around Delta’s tie-ups with hyperscalers and colocation players. What partnerships are in the pipeline?
Globally, Delta is engaged with the four major cloud service providers, and we are aligning our India strategy with how they enter the country, often via colocation players. Our focus is to be ready with the right solutions and to “follow the India way” by collaborating closely with local partners and operators as hyperscalers expand here. Furthermore, Mumbai is becoming a significant hub — hyperscalers, cloud providers, GPU compute firms, and on-premise hosting companies are all converging here. Delta intends to be the infrastructure backbone supporting that growth.
Sustainability and energy efficiency are becoming critical considerations for data centre operators. How does Delta approach this, and is it a pull factor in customer conversations?
Energy efficiency is at the core of what Delta does. In a data centre, every one per cent improvement in power supply efficiency translates into significant energy savings at scale. Similarly, more efficient cooling directly reduces the power usage of compute infrastructure.
We provide FMCS (Facility Management and Control Systems) that enable customers to monitor and optimise energy consumption across their entire facility. Our goal is to help the ecosystem consume less power, reduce carbon emissions, and operate more sustainably. This is not just a commercial proposition — it is part of Delta’s broader mission to support society through energy-saving innovation.
Can you explain Delta’s offering across both white space and grey space in data centres?
In the white space — where the servers reside — the primary requirement is power supply at the rack level. Even where HVDC has not yet been widely adopted, servers still require DC power converted from AC. Delta is the world’s largest supplier of rack-level power supply units for AI servers. We supply the highest-efficiency PSUs globally, which directly improves PUE for our customers.
In the grey space — the facility infrastructure around the servers — Delta’s portfolio covers HVAC, UPS, and broader power management. We also now offer direct-to-chip liquid cooling through CDUs, which bridges the white and grey space. The complete solution, from facility power to chip-level cooling, is something Delta India is fully equipped to deliver.
Beyond data centres, which other sectors do you see gaining significant traction for Delta’s power and cooling solutions?
Industrial automation is a major growth area. Data centre cooling infrastructure — chillers, liquid cooling loops, pumps — all require drives and automation components to function. Delta’s industrial automation portfolio is already serving manufacturers of chillers, compressor systems, and cooling towers. We are increasingly embedded in the supply chains of the companies building the very infrastructure that data centres rely on. Just to highlight, many companies represented at industry events are already important OEM customers for Delta components. Product sales to OEMs remain our core, but solutions are growing very rapidly. In India, our solutions business has grown roughly three times compared with 2020, as we move from selling only products and components to delivering integrated solutions directly to customers.
EV charging is another high-priority vertical. Delta has deep expertise in traction inverters, onboard chargers, and EV charging stations. If you are travelling on a highway in India today, there is a strong chance the charging station you stop at is powered by Delta. Our EVCS business has delivered strong results over the past two to three years, and we expect continued momentum.
Delta’s product portfolio is arguably broader than many competitors, yet market share reports suggest the top three players still hold a commanding lead. What is Delta’s strategy to close that gap?
Different companies have pursued different strategies in India, and the competitive landscape is evolving. Delta has historically been very strong in telecom power, and data centre has been an area where we continue to grow. That said, AI data centres are fundamentally changing the competitive dynamics.
In the past, competition centred on UPS and traditional power infrastructure. The new battleground is liquid cooling — and here, every player is on an equal footing. No one has a decades-long installed base in CDU technology in India. The question is who can deliver reliable, high-quality liquid cooling solutions fastest. This is a long-term race, and Delta is well-placed to compete. We already serve the four largest hyperscalers globally — that credibility will matter as those same customers expand in India.
Are you betting on data centre solutions as your fastest‑growing business in the next few years?
Data centres are a key growth driver, but we see broader opportunities as well. In the US, we already support major CSPs such as Google, Meta, Microsoft and AWS, and we want to leverage that global experience to achieve significant growth and higher market share in India as AI and cloud adoption accelerate.
Delta has committed to investing approximately $500 million in India. How will that capital be deployed?
A substantial share of that investment is going into expanding our Krishnagiri factory in Tamil Nadu, where we are adding three new manufacturing buildings on top of the existing six. Our customers are actively encouraging us to accelerate this build-out, which is itself a strong signal of demand.
The broader context is also favourable. With global supply chain reconfiguration underway — driven by tariff considerations and government-to-government trade negotiations with both the US and Europe — India is increasingly attractive as a manufacturing base. Customers who previously held manufacturing processes in Thailand or China are now in active discussions with us about transitioning to India. The Krishnagiri facility will be central to that shift. We are investing in people, training, supply chain readiness, and capacity — and the momentum is building.
Looking ahead, what is your message to customers and partners in India’s data centre and infrastructure ecosystem?
India’s data centre and AI journey is just beginning, and the opportunities are immense. Delta is committed to partnering with customers over the long term—combining local manufacturing and R&D with global experience in power, cooling, automation and EV infrastructure—to help build a more efficient, sustainable digital future for India.
