HCLTech Partners with Sarvam and Odisha Government to Build $1.6 Billion AI Data Center

HCLTech has announced plans to establish its first AI-focused data center in the upcoming Odisha Sovereign AI Park, marking a significant step in India’s push to build sovereign artificial intelligence infrastructure. The project, developed in partnership with AI startup Sarvam and the Government of Odisha, carries a planned capital outlay of Rs 14,257 crores — approximately $1.6 billion — including financial assistance from the state government.

The announcement follows HCLTech’s disclosure on July 13, 2026, of its planned entry into the full-stack AI market, signaling a strategic pivot toward end-to-end AI capabilities. By combining HCLTech’s full-stack AI expertise with Sarvam’s foundation models, the initiative aims to deliver sector-specific AI applications to both private and public sector enterprises. The companies said the project will also support multilingual AI-based services designed to reach underserved populations across India.

A memorandum of understanding formalizing the partnership was signed in the presence of Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Odisha Minister of Electronics and IT Dr. Mukesh Mahaling, HCLTech Chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra, HCLTech CEO and Managing Director C Vijayakumar, and Sarvam Co-Founder Pratyush Kumar.

Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson of HCLTech, described the investment as an enabler of India’s sovereign AI ecosystem: “HCLTech has been a flagbearer of India’s technology industry. In line with the Digital India and Atmanirbhar Bharat vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister Sh. 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.” She added that the company is pleased to start this endeavor in partnership with the Odisha government and Sarvam.

HCLTech CEO and Managing Director C Vijayakumar emphasized the strategic value of the project: “This is an important milestone in our full-stack AI play and will enable us to serve the large demand for sovereign AI solutions and unlock the scale of our strategic partnership with Sarvam. Odisha offers a progressive policy environment backed by excellent infrastructure and we look forward to working with them.”

Pratyush Kumar, Co-Founder of Sarvam, noted that the Odisha Sovereign AI Park will connect high-performance compute with Indian models and real-world applications, adding that the company is excited to bring its full-stack AI capabilities to enterprises and public systems at scale alongside HCLTech.

The broader context reflects an accelerating data center ecosystem in India. HCLTech noted that the country’s data center sector is experiencing rapid growth, driven by demand from an expanding digital economy, data localization requirements, and infrastructure needs to support GPU deployments for AI training and inference workloads. HCLTech, which employs more than 223,000 people across 60 countries and reported consolidated revenues of $14.8 billion for the 12 months ending June 2026, sees this investment as a strategic move to capture the growing sovereign AI market while strengthening the local developer ecosystem.