OpenAI is said to be in advanced talks to partner Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. to build AI infrastructure in India. That’s seen as a win-win for the world’s largest AI company and what can become the world’s largest AI-led services company.
The Sam Altman-led company is negotiating leasing at least 500 MW of AI data centre capacity from TCS HyperVault to train and run its AI models locally, The Economic Times reported on Thursday. TCS, in return, is keen to use OpenAI’s large-language models to build Agentic AI solutions for its clients across BFSI, retail, consumer goods and manufacturing sectors.
A TCS-OpenAI deal would also mark the beginning of Stargate in India.
TCS and OpenAI didn’t respond to ET’s queries. HT.com has not independently verified this information.
AI infrastructure in India
Talks of a likely TCS-OpenAI deal come at a time when India has emerged as the largest userbase of ChatGPT outside of the US, even as technology firms of all shapes and sizes flock to the world’s largest internet population for data to train their large-language models.
- Google has disclosed plans to invest up to $15 billion over the next five years to set up its first AI hub in Vizag. The AI infrastructure project includes a 1 GW data centre operated by captive renewable energy sources and a subsea fiber-optic network.
- Microsoft Corp. is investing $3 billion in India over the next couple of years to build local cloud (Azure) and AI infrastructure. The plan includes training a crore people with AI skills by 2030.
- Meta Platforms Inc. is investing $100 million in Reliance Industries Ltd.’s upcoming AI data centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
- Amazon Web Services has committed $12.7 billion by 2030 to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in India.
- Tata Consultancy Services itself has raised $1 billion from TPG for its AI venture called HyperVault. Together, they will build the 1 GW data centre, which OpenAI is interested in.
- Reliance Industries Ltd., along with Brookfield, has announced an $11 billion investment over five years to build a 1 GW AI data centre in Vizag.
Stargate in India
OpenAI had started laying the groundwork for Stargate India by engaging with the government and Reliance Industries Ltd. Those talks fell through. Since then, RIL has turned to long-time partners Google and Meta to fulfil its AI ambitions under Reliance Intelligence.
To be sure, the Tata Group—of which TCS is the flagship company—is not keen on diluting stake or overindex on a single customer like OpenAI for its AI data centre business, as they want to broaden their offerings to others as well, like Anthropic, ET quoted sources as saying.
