Bengaluru: HCLTech plans to invest Rs 14,257 crore to set up its first AI data centre at the upcoming Odisha Sovereign AI Park, marking one of the country’s largest investments in sovereign AI infrastructure.The IT firm will establish the AI data centre in partnership with homegrown AI startup Sarvam and Odisha govt. The project cost includes financial assistance from the state govt.The announcement comes a month after Sarvam raised $234 million in a funding round led by HCLTech and Bessemer Venture Partners, taking its valuation to $1.5 billion. HCLTech invested $150 million as the lead strategic investor, acquiring a 10.4% stake in the company.The proposed data centre aims to strengthen India’s sovereign AI ecosystem by combining HCLTech’s AI infrastructure and services capabilities with Sarvam’s indigenous foundation models to develop sector-specific AI applications for enterprises, govt departments and public sector organisations.The AI data centre will serve as the backbone of Odisha Sovereign AI Park, providing high-performance computing infrastructure for AI model training, deployment and inference while addressing the growing demand for data sovereignty and secure AI workloads.“In line with the Digital India and Atmanirbhar Bharat vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we strive to be an enabler of India’s sovereign AI ecosystem with differentiated offerings across the value chain through focused investments and partnerships,” said Roshni Nadar Malhotra, chairperson of HCLTech.She said the company was pleased to launch the initiative in partnership with Odisha govt and Sarvam.C Vijayakumar, chief executive and managing director, said the facility would strengthen HCLTech’s full-stack AI capabilities while helping meet the rising demand for sovereign AI solutions.Separately, HCLTech also announced plans to set up a global technology centre in Bhubaneswar to deliver AI-led digital solutions to global enterprises. The facility, which will complement the proposed AI data centre, will employ about 5,000 people and is expected to begin operations by 2028.
