HCLTech is entering the capital-intensive AI data centre market with an investment of up to ₹3,500 crore, as it looks to capture demand for sovereign computing infrastructure, GPU capacity and full-stack artificial intelligence services.
The announcement came alongside its Q1 FY27 results, which showed strong AI revenue growth and record first-quarter deal bookings. However, the same quarter also saw HCLTech’s workforce shrink by 3,292 employees.
TL;DR
- HCLTech will invest up to ₹3,500 crore in AI data centres that could scale to 50 MW.
- The company wants to provide infrastructure, GPUs, models, software and managed AI services through one integrated offering.
- Its workforce fell from 227,181 employees in March to 223,889 at the end of June.
- Advanced AI revenue grew 62.1% year over year to $171 million.
HCLTech Enters The Full-Stack AI Infrastructure Market
HCLTech said the investment will be made through a new subsidiary and additional step-down subsidiaries created for the data centre business.
The facilities could eventually reach 50 MW of capacity and will support AI training and inference workloads for private-sector and government customers. HCLTech expects demand to be driven by data localisation, digital sovereignty requirements and growing constraints around AI-ready computing infrastructure.
“The convergence of AI-led demand, supply constraints and push for digital sovereignty presents a compelling opportunity for us to emerge as a full-stack AI technology solutions provider,” said C Vijayakumar, CEO and Managing Director of HCLTech.
Vijayakumar added that entering the AI data centre market would position HCLTech to capture more value as customers move beyond basic physical infrastructure toward higher-value, AI-ready solutions.
The company plans to combine the new capacity with its existing expertise in data centre design, AI cloud operations, DevOps, software and managed services. This would allow it to offer infrastructure, access to GPUs, AI models, enterprise applications and operational support as an integrated service.
“AI has fundamentally changed the economics of computing. For us, the data centre is the foundation for delivering full-stack AI solutions, from GPUs and models to enterprise applications,” Vijayakumar said during the company’s earnings conference.
HCLTech said India’s overall data centre capacity could grow from around 1.8 GW currently to between 5 GW and 7 GW by 2030, with AI-focused facilities expected to account for a significant portion of the expansion.
Workforce Falls As Revenue And AI Business Grow
The investment announcement arrived as HCLTech recorded a net workforce reduction of 3,292 employees during the quarter. Its total headcount declined from 227,181 at the end of March 2026 to 223,889 as of June 30.
Reuters described the reduction as the company’s steepest workforce decline in eight quarters. HCLTech did not present the decrease as a dedicated mass-layoff announcement, meaning the figure may also reflect attrition, hiring levels and restructuring activity during the period.
Meanwhile, HCLTech reported ₹34,579 crore in quarterly revenue, up 13.9% year over year. Net income increased 20.3% to ₹4,624 crore, while total contract value from new deal wins reached a first-quarter record of $2.4 billion.
Its Advanced AI revenue reached $171 million, growing 62.1% year over year and 10.6% sequentially in constant currency terms.
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“We recorded our highest ever Q1 net new bookings of $2.4 billion and our Advanced AI business grew 10.6% QoQ and 62.1% YoY,” Vijayakumar said.
The company maintained its FY27 constant-currency revenue growth guidance of 1% to 4%, while forecasting an EBIT margin of between 17.5% and 18.5%.
The investment signals that HCLTech wants to move deeper into the AI value chain. However, building and operating AI data centres will require significant capital, power and specialised hardware, making customer adoption and utilisation important measures of whether the plan becomes a meaningful new growth engine.
