HCLTech has announced plans to invest approximately ₹3,500 crore to construct and operate data centers with a capacity of up to 50 megawatts. This move makes the company only the second Indian IT services firm, following Tata Consultancy Services, to enter the data center business.
The investment signals a strategic shift toward controlling more of the artificial intelligence value chain, moving beyond merely hosting workloads to delivering a comprehensive suite of AI services.
C Vijayakumar, chief executive of HCLTech, described the initiative as a full-stack approach encompassing data centers, graphics processing units, models, and applications. This strategy contrasts with TCS, which committed $6.5 billion over six years last October to build 1 gigawatt of capacity. TCS focuses on providing infrastructure services such as land, power, and cooling to large hyperscalers and AI-native firms.
HCLTech aims to complete its compute layer through a partnership with Sarvam.ai, a Bengaluru-based startup in which HCLTech acquired a 10% stake for about $150 million last month. Sarvam develops AI models tailored for Indian languages. The company also intends to integrate its AI orchestration solutions and talent resources to compete across the entire stack.
Industry analysts note that the two firms are targeting different segments of the market. TCS is primarily working with large AI companies to sell compute power, a model that is capital and compute intensive. In contrast, HCLTech is focusing on small language models that require less compute power and are designed to be cost-effective for specific client needs.
