Three working notes behind the Setu design: where demand is coming from, why air cooling comes first, and why green is a roadmap rather than a retrofit.
Note 01
The AI infrastructure opportunity
Artificial intelligence is reshaping the global economy — a transformation projected to add over $15 trillion to global GDP by 2030. Global data centre electricity consumption is projected to surpass 1,000 TWh by 2030, more than doubling 2022 levels, as AI and cloud workloads compound.
Yet most of that capacity sits in a handful of traditional hubs. Enterprises, AI companies and governments increasingly need capacity in new digital hubs — jurisdictions with stability, connectivity, data-protection regimes and a strategic position between continents. That is the gap Setu is built to serve: trusted, sovereign, enterprise-grade capacity in the Indian Ocean region.
Connectivity is the foundation of regional capacity. Photography: Unsplash.
Note 02
Cooling for AI: air today, liquid when it pays
Mainstream AI servers today — the platforms most enterprises and inference workloads actually run — are served efficiently by high-density air cooling: contained aisles, disciplined airflow and modern chillers. Liquid cooling only becomes necessary at extreme rack densities, and it carries real capital, operational and supply-chain costs.
Setu's choice is deliberate: air-cooled halls today, with the floor, power and plant-yard provisions to add higher-density cooling in later phases if tenant demand requires it. That keeps capital discipline now, reaches the market faster, and preserves an upgrade path — without betting the facility on a single cooling technology.
In a tropical island climate this engineering is doubly important: a cyclone-aware envelope, humidity control and redundant plant sit behind every rack, and an air-cooled design removes dependence on fresh water entirely — a meaningful resilience advantage on an island.
Note 03
Green is a roadmap, not a retrofit
Efficiency is the first green. An air-cooled hall with modern chillers, aisle containment and tight monitoring already wastes far less energy than legacy facilities — and the larger green steps, solar generation and renewable supply, depend on scale and land, which is exactly why the campus is planned for them from day one.
For investors, this sequencing is the point: ESG positioning that arrives with scale and revenue, not as an upfront subsidy. As client mandates harden and Mauritius' grid renewables grow — the nation targets 60% renewable electricity by 2030 — Setu can shift its energy mix phase by phase without re-architecting the facility.
References
[1.1] International Energy Agency (IEA). (2024). Global data centre electricity consumption.
[1.2] PwC. Global Artificial Intelligence Study: $15.7 trillion to the global economy by 2030.
[2.1] Uptime Institute. Tier Classification Standard — Tier IV (fault-tolerant, 2N, 99.995% availability design).
[3.1] Government of Mauritius / EDB Mauritius. Renewable energy target: 60% of the electricity mix by 2030; coal phased out.
Next step
Put this thinking to work.
If your workloads need a sovereign home in the Indian Ocean — or you want the technical detail — start the conversation.
