The AI wave sweeping across the world has resulted in an ‘AI gold rush’ with technology giants racing to meet the ever-growing demand. This has meant more investments in sectors critical to AI infrastructure, and Indian companies are racing to meet demand.
With more than 65% of Indians now using AI regularly, all companies working in the sector (those without are partnering with those who are) are ramping up investments in India. Currently, India generates about 20% of global data but has just 4% of the data center capacity. According to a report by IT hardware industry body MAIT, India’s enterprise AI market is expected to grow at 39% CAGR, reaching a valuation of $130 billion by 2032.
With demand for data storage and computing capacity, and for skills, skyrocketing, there are 8 companies at the forefront of this ‘AI gold rush’.
Reliance Industries Limited
Led by Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries Limited has been going all in to ride the AI infrastructure wave. With an initial investment of about $15 billion, the company is building a data center complex in Jamnagar with further investments including a foundational Large Language Model (LLM) specifically trained for Indian languages. Through its partnerships with Meta and Google, Reliance Industries Limited is looking to make AI ubiquitous through its tech stack, with the ‘JioBrain’ engine offering AI services being at the center of these efforts. In all, Reliance is looking to invest about $110 billion over the next seven years, as it looks to redeploy its tried and tested ‘Jio Playbook’ for the AI gold rush.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)
India’s largest software exporter is now looking to expand to the next frontier of automation by investing in data centers. Through its HyperVault subsidiary, TCS is aiming to spend about $7 billion in setting up data center infrastructure in India in partnership with TPG.
Besides that, the company is also looking to integrate NVIDIA’s full stack AI platform with its deep industrial expertise. It aims to leverage its global Centers of Excellence (CoEs) to offer industry-specific solutions. Along with that, it aims to leverage AI to modernize industrial processes to design and deploy physical AI systems for factories and warehouses.
The company is also aiming to reskill about 1,00,000 employees (about 1/6th of its workforce) in AI automations to augment human judgement.
Bharti Airtel (Nxtra)
India’s second largest mobile phone operator, Bharti Airtel aims to set up data centers in India through its subsidiary Nxtra Data Limited. The company has raised almost $1 billion for this and aims to expand its data center capacity beyond its 14 core data centers and over 120 edge facilities across India. The company is also looking to reduce power consumption and boost equipment performance through its ‘Intelligent by Design’ approach that reduces consumption by 10%.
By integrating the AI-powered SmartSense platform, Nxtra uses predictive maintenance and automated operations to optimize performance across its facilities. This “Intelligent by Design” approach targets a 10% reduction in non-IT power consumption and a 15% increase in equipment performance, which is critical for maintaining margins in a capital-intensive sector. Nxtra is also aiming to launch data centers in Africa as well, positioning Airtel as a critical player in the AI infrastructure wave for the developing world.
AdaniConneX
Through its 50:50 joint venture with EdgeConneX, the Adani Group aims to leverage its presence in green energy and ports to build its own sovereign AI stack for India, with a $100 billion commitment to develop renewable energy-powered data centers by 2035.
The company has already received commitments worth $875 million from eight international lenders for this. It looks to establish large-scale campuses across the country by controlling the land, renewable energy supply, and physical infrastructure needed for cost-competitive AI services in the market.
Microsoft India
Microsoft has one of the largest cloud footprints outside the US with the company focusing on scale, skills and sovereignty to boost its AI public infrastructure.
CEO Satya Nadella has announced a record $17.5 billion investment in India till 2029 even as it looks to roll out public and private cloud infrastructure under its Azure Local platform. The company is already training about 5.6 million people in AI skills, with a commitment to train about 20 million Indians looking to fund jobs or start businesses using AI.
Its Hyderabad data center is expected to go live in mid 2026, with work ongoing in Chennai and Pune as well.
Google India
Google has committed almost $15 billion to establish its first AI data center in Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh. The company aims to connect India’s eastern coast to its global network of undersea cables as it looks to develop India’s AI infrastructure in partnership with local companies.
It is also booking to invest $10 billion over 5-7 years under the “Google for India Digitization Fund”, where it aims to develop a single unified AI model that can work with over 100 Indian languages. It is collaborating with the Indian Institute of Science in this regard under ‘Project Vaani’.
Nvidia India
Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang has proirtized India as one of the leading battlegrounds for the ‘Intelligence Revolution’. It is collaborating with leading venture capital firms like Accel India, Peak XV and Elevation Capital to fund over 500 AI startups to ensure that NVIDIA’s architecture remains the default standard for the next generation of Indian tech companies.
Nvidia is partnering with the Government of India’s ‘IndiaAI Mission’ to procure and subsidize access to around 40,000 GPUs to form the backbone of the IndiaAI Compute Portal.Huang has also personally assured Indian tech companies of supplies of its flagship H100 GPUs required for advanced AI computing.
Bosch India
German technology giant Bosch is expanding its India operations into a ‘global AI development hub’, where the company aims to integrate AI across its Internet of Things (IoT) products, aiming to create a closed value creation cycle centered on the Indian software workforce.
Through its upcoming “Spark.NXT” innovation center in India, the company is aiming to integrate AI across its operations in the country.
