HCLTech to build $1.48 billion AI data center in Odisha
HCLTech will spend about $1.48 billion on its first AI data center in Bhubaneswar, tying the project to Odisha’s sovereign AI push and a 5,000-seat tech hub.
HCLTech said it will invest 142.57 billion rupees, about $1.48 billion, to build its first AI data center in Bhubaneswar, placing the project at the center of India’s drive to keep AI infrastructure, talent and value creation at home. The facility will sit in the Odisha Sovereign AI Park and is being developed with Sarvam AI and the Government of Odisha.
Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi said the state had signed two memoranda of understanding with HCLTech and Sarvam AI to strengthen Odisha’s technology and digital infrastructure, including the state’s first AI data centre. The project also includes a 5,000-seat tech hub, linking compute capacity with the engineering and delivery workforce needed to support it.
The scale of the investment makes the project more than a regional expansion. HCLTech is one of India’s best-known IT services companies, and moving into AI infrastructure signals a shift beyond software delivery toward the capital-heavy layer that powers model training and deployment. Partnering with Sarvam AI, a domestic startup, points to a broader effort to build a homegrown ecosystem instead of relying entirely on foreign cloud and chip vendors.
That ambition comes with practical constraints. Large data centers demand reliable electricity, land, water and cooling systems, and AI facilities are especially power-hungry because they are built to train and run advanced systems at scale. For Odisha, the project could bring construction activity, jobs and a new technology cluster, but it also raises questions about how quickly the state’s grid and infrastructure can support a facility of this size.
The investment lands as governments and companies race to secure the physical foundations of AI, from chips and servers to data-center land and power contracts. For India, a 142.57 billion rupee bet in Odisha is a sign that the competition is no longer only about software services or apps. It is now about who controls the compute stack beneath them, and whether domestic capacity can grow fast enough to match national AI ambitions.
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