US hyperscalers are pausing plans to lease data centers in India amidst trade uncertainty.

Citing an unnamed property consultant, CNBC reports that new deals for data centers have been on hold for more than two months, with hyperscalers planning to "revisit" their plans within the next three to six months.

That projects are currently in flux was backed up by Alok Bajpai, managing director of India for NTT Global Data Centers, who said that data center deals are “still in the pipeline, but they [hyperscalers] are holding the pen and saying let me not sign it just yet.”

These pauses coincide with trade-relation-uncertainty between the US and India.

In August, the US imposed 25 percent tariffs on goods from India, later increasing this to 50 percent, which it said was due to India's purchase of Russian oil. Notably, in late July, Microsoft cut off India firm Nayara Energy's access to its cloud computing services following EU sanctions on the oil refinery company. Nayara Energy is majority-owned by Russia's Rosneft and is a large buyer of Russian oil.

Further tensions can be seen in the new $100,000 "one-time" visa fee for H-1B visa applications put in place last month, which is expected to impact indian workers applying for jobs in the US.

Jitendra Soni, a partner in the technology and data privacy practice at law firm Argus Partners, noted that the new US tariffs on Indian exports have "unsettled global supply chains and made equipment and input costs harder to pin down.”

This is, according to Soni, demonstrated in data center deals where "clauses for tariff pass-throughs, change in law, and phased capacity are quietly becoming standard.” Soni similarly reiterated that deals were not off the table, but simply being paused.

The likes of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, and Google have all made major commitments to expanding infrastructure in India this year.

January saw AWS stating it would invest $8.3 billion in developing cloud infrastructure for its AWS Asia-Pacific (Mumbai) Region in Maharashtra, India, and Microsoft said it would spend $3bn in expanding its AI and cloud computing capacity in the country.

Google was reportedly planning to build a 1GW data center with $6bn of investment as recently as July 2025.

DCD has reached out for comment from all three hyperscalers.