Team siliconindia

• TCS to invest $6.5 billion in AI-driven data centre expansion to build global-scale capabilities.
• The company aims to become the world’s largest AI-led services firm with a mix of equity and debt funding.
• Experts say India’s digital infrastructure is evolving into a core investment asset class.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is gearing up for a massive transformation with its $6.5 billion capital expenditure plan to build next-generation AI data centres in India and abroad. The move signals not just an investment in digital capacity but a strategic push to prevent 'tech colonisation' by building homegrown capabilities in AI infrastructure.

 K Krithivasan,CEO of TCS, said, the company’s goal is to become the world’s largest AI-led services firm. “This initiative also has a strong India focus alongside global opportunities. We’ve structured the funding through a mix of equity and debt, partnering with a financial investor to retain flexibility and strategic control”.

According to Prateek Jhawar of Avendus Capital, global investors such as Apollo, Blackstone, and CPP Investments are backing long-term debt structures linked to hyperscaler contracts, reshaping India’s data centre ecosystem. “The demand is so strong that data centres are now treated like core infrastructure assets, not just technology real estate”, he added.

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India’s data centre capacity is projected to cross 2,000 MW within two years, needing another $3.5 billion in investment. Operators like AdaniConneX, Yotta Data, and CapitaLand have already raised about $2 billion for new hyperscale campuses across major metros.

A Barclays report estimates India could attract $19 billion in data centre investments by 2030, driven largely by AI adoption and hyperscaler growth.