TCS plans to invest $6-7 billion over the next decade to build 1GW of data centre capacity through its AI-focused venture, HyperVault. HCLTech is committing ₹3,500 crore (around $360 million) to build up to 50MW of capacity and has invested $150 million in sovereign AI platform Sarvam AI. According to reports from Mint, these moves signal a strategic pivot as top-tier IT firms want to anchor AI services in their own infrastructure rather than rely solely on outsourcing contracts.
India generates 20% of the world's data but has less than 3% of its data centre capacity—around 150 of 11,000 worldwide, as reported by Mint citing the Economic Survey 2025-26. India's data centre capacity is projected to reach 8GW by 2030 from about 1.4GW as of the second quarter of 2025. Data localization requirements under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act are adding to demand for local infrastructure, while UPI growth, BFSI digitization and AI-led transformation across sectors strengthen the case for low-latency, sovereign AI infrastructure.
Generative AI is disrupting the traditional asset-light software business model, as reported by Mint. As AI automates parts of coding and maintenance, IT services companies can no longer rely solely on adding headcount to drive growth. TCS expects to have as many AI agents as human employees within the next three years. Owning infrastructure could help IT companies capture more enterprise AI spending instead of merely renting capacity or running services on third-party data centres, as training large language models requires enormous computing power and specialized hardware including advanced chips.
The global sovereign AI market was valued at approximately $40 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach $148.0 billion by 2032, according to a report by MarketsandMarkets Research. The report indicates that APAC is the fastest-growing region, driven by China and India. NTT DATA has committed $1.5 billion over the next three years to expand data centre infrastructure and capacity in India, focusing on local compute capacity, secure data residency, and sovereign AI infrastructure. While 94% of APAC organisations consider private and sovereign AI important to their business strategy, only 30% are prioritising sovereign AI in concrete near-term execution plans, as reported by NTT DATA's Global AI Report.
