Projects
☰
HomeResearchNewsTopicsOur transactionsCasesExpertiseAbout usProjectsRU
Topics

Data centres

Data centres as an asset class in Russia: market size and rack prices, who builds and operates, how much a megawatt costs and how fast it pays back. Moscow, the Moscow region, St Petersburg and sites next to power plants.

To an investor, a data centre is a building with power, cooling and connectivity, let by the rack or to a single tenant. In Russia supply is not keeping up with demand: new rack openings fell threefold in 2025, Moscow sites are nearly full, and in Q2 2026 the price of a rack in Moscow rose 15.7% year on year. Below: how the market works, what a megawatt costs to build, how long it takes to pay back, where to build and what risks an investor takes.

Data as of November 2026. The calculations are illustrative and do not replace a financial model for a specific project.

1.8 GWcapacity of Russian commercial data centres at the start of 2026; may reach 3–3.5 GW within five years (NF Group)
75%of commercial capacity is in Moscow and the Moscow region, another 8–10% in St Petersburg (NF Group)
RUB 170.8kaverage monthly price of a 5 kW rack in Moscow in Q2 2026, up 15.7% year on year (iKS-Consulting, 3data)
RUB 1.1–1.3bncost of 1 MW of IT capacity including land and grid connection (NF Group)

Market: demand outpaces supply

5.3k

racks opened by commercial data centres in 2025 vs 14.3k in 2024: 41% of plan was delivered (CNews Analytics)

78.7k

racks run by the 30 largest operators at end-2025, up 7% year on year (CNews Analytics)

200–300 MW

of unmet demand in the Moscow region; the same amount is under construction or design, but not all will be built (NF Group)

+31.3%

annual rise in rack prices in St Petersburg, to RUB 138k a month: the market is catching up with Moscow (iKS-Consulting, 3data)

Prices are rising less because of demand than because of short supply. Construction is constrained by money: projects have been pushed to 2026–2027 by expensive debt. Older halls are also designed for 5–8 kW per rack, while AI servers need 15–20 kW, so after a refit a 200-rack hall holds 50–70. Experts expect prices to keep rising in 2027–2028.

Largest operators

OperatorRacks at 31.12.2025Opened in 2025
RTK-DC (Rostelecom)27,823+1,435
IXcellerate10,329+2,040
Rosatom6,570—
DataPro6,553—
Selectel3,612—

CNews Analytics data. RTK-DC holds about a third of the market, the top five about two thirds. Beyond commercial operators, banks, marketplaces and internet companies build large data centres for their own use: T-Bank, Wildberries, Avito, VK, X5, MTS.

Economics of a 20 MW data centre

A typical project of 20 MW total power: about 12 MW of IT load, 1,200 racks of 10 kW, a building of about 6,000 sq m on a 1.2 ha plot. Below: construction cost in three locations and operating economics in Moscow. Inputs are market-participant estimates for 2025.

MoscowMoscow regionSt Petersburg
Cooling industrial air conditioning free cooling (outside air) industrial air conditioning
PUE 1.7 1.3 1.7
IT capacity 12.1 MW 15.4 MW 12.1 MW
Building and engineering RUB 9.5bn RUB 8.4bn RUB 9.0bn
Grid connection and cable line RUB 1.0bn RUB 1.0bn RUB 1.0bn
Land RUB 0.6bn RUB 24m RUB 0.2bn
Total RUB 11.1bn RUB 9.4bn RUB 10.2bn
Per kW of IT capacity RUB 0.9m RUB 0.6m RUB 0.8m

About 75% of the cost is engineering: power distribution, UPS and batteries, diesel generators, cooling, low-voltage systems. A Moscow building costs more because it is a permanent structure (RUB 250k per sq m vs RUB 120k for a light industrial building in the region). In the Moscow region free cooling lowers PUE, so the same 20 MW of grid power yields a quarter more IT capacity. About 40% of project cost is linked to foreign currency.

RUB 3.5bn

annual revenue at full occupancy: 1,200 racks at RUB 240k a month per 10 kW

50%

EBITDA margin, about RUB 1.7bn a year, with electricity at RUB 4.2 per kWh

RUB 0.7bn

annual electricity at full load, about 21% of revenue; each extra rouble of tariff costs another RUB 0.2bn

6.4 years

simple payback at full occupancy from day one; with a 2–3 year lease-up and a 25% cost of money, 8–10 years

Market benchmarks: a conservative payback of 7–8 years and an average client contract of 5–7 years (NF Group). The minimum viable size is about 500 racks, or 8 MW: a smaller data centre cannot carry its own operations team and pays an outside contractor.

Where to build

advantageneutralconstraintThe note under each mark explains it.

MoscowMoscowMoscow regionRegionSt PetersburgSt PeteNext to a power plant (hydro, CHP)Plant
Client demand headquarters, banks, government Moscow corporate build-to-suit Region lower, especially enterprise St Pete energy-intensive workloads only Plant
Connectivity and exchange points the main national hub Moscow close to Moscow hubs Region some traffic transits Moscow St Pete own fibre needed, high latency Plant
Grid capacity almost no spare capacity Moscow available in industrial zones Region 1+ MW hard to get in places St Pete hundreds of MW, own substation Plant
Land and permits urban renewal zones, land use, mayor approval Moscow cheaper land, room to expand Region easier in industrial zones St Pete restricted site, clearances Plant
Cooling hot summers, air conditioning Moscow free cooling, PUE 1.3 Region colder, lower cost St Pete cold climate, water Plant
Staff and logistics available Moscow available Region available St Pete remote, rotation staff Plant
Rack price RUB 170.8k per 5 kW Moscow close to Moscow Region RUB 138k per 5 kW St Pete no colocation market Plant

Bottom line: for a multi-tenant colocation data centre Moscow remains the main market, if power and land can be secured. The Moscow region suits a build-to-suit facility for a specific client, St Petersburg a modular facility delivered in phases, and a plant site workloads where only the price of a kilowatt-hour matters.

Project formats

Commercial data centre

Racks are let to many clients: colocation, cloud, SaaS. Pros: risk spread across tenants, expansion in step with demand. Cons: needs sales, SLA support, Tier certification and competition with large operators.

Build-to-suit

The building is designed to one client's technical specification and let on a long contract. Pros: income guaranteed from day one, no idle infrastructure. Cons: dependence on one tenant and its strategy, limited expansion.

Modular data centre

Halls built from prefabricated blocks and opened in phases. Pros: faster to build, capital follows demand. Suits markets with a modest shortage, such as St Petersburg.

Energy-intensive site at a plant

AI model training, batch processing, cold archives. What matters is a cheap kilowatt-hour and spare capacity; connectivity and latency come second. Crypto mining is banned in data centres on the state register.

What slows construction in Moscow

Urban renewal programmes

Most suitable plots in Moscow fall within integrated territorial development (KRT) programmes. Taking a plot out of KRT takes 6–9 months and requires separate work with the city.

Permitted land use

The plot needs a permitted use for energy, telecoms or industrial and warehouse facilities. Changing it is slow and expensive: market participants estimate from RUB 1bn per hectare.

Grid capacity

There is almost no spare capacity for new data centres in Moscow. Proximity to a power plant solves this, but a cable line costs from RUB 100m per kilometre.

Approvals and buffer zones

Data centre construction is approved at the mayor's level. The plot must stay clear of sanitary and fire buffer zones, proximity to housing and restricted sites is limited, and power plants have their own distance and noise rules.

What the city offers

Priority investment project, technopark or federal data centre status in Moscow brings reliefs on profit, property and land taxes, discounted land rent and a grid-connection subsidy. Terms depend on the status and are checked for each project.

Investor risks

  1. Power and timing

    Obtaining grid connection terms and building lines is the main source of delay. A data centre without confirmed capacity cannot be financed.

  2. Cost of money

    With money costing about 25% a year, payback stretches to 8–10 years. Expensive debt is what halted part of construction in 2025.

  3. Currency and equipment

    About 40% of capex is linked to foreign currency: UPS, generators and cooling are mostly imported, supplied via third countries, with long lead times.

  4. Obsolescence

    The move to 15–30 kW AI racks devalues 5–8 kW halls. Projects should be designed for high density or the ability to raise it.

  5. Single tenant

    In a build-to-suit facility all revenue depends on one contract. It needs a long term, indexation and protection against early termination.

  6. Regulation

    The data centre law has applied since 2026, but discounted power tariffs are so far promised mainly for regions with surplus energy, not Moscow.

How an investor gets in

Mutual funds topic →

Land and power + operator

The owner of a plot or a power plant contributes land and capacity to a joint company; the operator builds and runs it. Income is shared by stakes or via a lease with revenue participation.

Build-to-suit and lease

The investor builds for a large client and lets the building on a contract of 5–7 years or longer. The cash flow resembles a warehouse or office build-to-suit, with more expensive engineering.

Buying a stabilised asset

Buying a let facility from an operator with a leaseback: the operator funds new construction, the investor gets a rental stream.

Through a mutual fund

A data centre building can be held in a combined ZPIF for qualified investors: no profit tax inside the fund, and the property is ring-fenced.

What changed in 2026

Questions and answers

How much does a data centre cost to build?

Building and engineering cost RUB 750–800m per MW of IT capacity including VAT, or RUB 1.1–1.3bn with land and grid connection (NF Group). Costs rose 2–2.5 times over five years. A 20 MW project in Moscow costs about RUB 11.1bn.

What return does a data centre earn?

A mature data centre earns an EBITDA margin of about 50%. At full occupancy a 20 MW Moscow project generates about RUB 1.7bn of EBITDA a year on RUB 11.1bn invested, about 15.5% on capital before tax and debt. Allowing for lease-up, payback is 7–10 years.

Why does electricity matter so much?

A 20 MW data centre consumes about 175.2 million kWh a year. Each rouble of tariff is RUB 0.2bn of cost, or about 5% of revenue. That is why owners of power plants and sites with spare capacity have a clear edge.

Can a data centre be built in Moscow?

Yes, but it is the hardest option: power shortage, plots in KRT zones, land-use changes, mayor approval. In return Moscow has the highest rack price and the main connectivity hub. Building a client-specific facility in the Moscow region is often simpler.

What is PUE?

The ratio of a data centre's total power draw to its IT load. A PUE of 1.7 means every kilowatt of servers needs another 0.7 kW for cooling and losses. Free cooling in a cold climate brings PUE down to 1.3.

Sources