HCLTech, a global technology company, has announced a strategic investment of up to ₹3,500 crore (~US$ 363 million) to establish AI data centers in India, with the potential to scale to 50 MW of capacity. This is part of its wider plans surrounding its entry into the full-stack AI market.
In a press release, HCL said that the proposed investment shall be made through its new subsidiary and step-down subsidiaries that will be set-up for this business. The AI data center investment will complement its existing capabilities across AI data center design, DevOps and AI cloud operations as well as its software portfolio.
C Vijayakumar, CEO & Managing Director, HCLTech said, “The convergence of AI-led demand, supply constraints and push for digital sovereignty presents a compelling opportunity for us to emerge as a full-stack AI technology solutions provider. Our entry into the AI data center space positions us to capture the full value of this opportunity, as the industry transitions from physical infrastructure to higher-value, AI-ready solutions. Our managed services and outcome-based services to our global clients would also benefit significantly from this investment.”
Explaining its interest in India, it said that as the country was among the fastest growing technology markets globally, it had emerged as a key focus growth market for HCLTech.
“The country’s data center ecosystem is on a rapid growth trajectory, driven by strong demand from a vibrant digital economy, data localization and critical infrastructure needs to support GPU deployments for AI training and inference workloads,” it said, adding that it expected India’s data center capacity grow to 5-7 GW by 2030 from the current 1.8 GW, with a significant part of that growth in AI data centers.
HCLTech currently has operations spread across 60 countries, delivering capabilities centered around AI, digital, engineering, cloud and software, among others. HCLTech has a network of over 250 data center sites across the world, and has collaborated with specific leading Cloud exchange providers, facilitating hybrid cloud connectivity options from the managed data center itself. It recently invested US$ 150 million as the lead strategic investor in Sarvam AI, an Indian full-stack sovereign AI company.