OpenAI is said to be in advanced talks to partner with Tata Consultancy Services Ltd to build AI infrastructure in India. This is being seen as a benefit for the world’s largest AI company and it could become the world’s largest AI-led services company.
The Sam Altman-led company is in talks to lease at least 500 MW of AI data center capacity from TCS Hypervault to train and run its AI models locally, The Economic Times reported on Thursday. TCS, in turn, is keen to use OpenAI’s big-language models to build agentic AI solutions for its customers in the BFSI, retail, consumer goods and manufacturing sectors.
The TCS-OpenAI deal will also mark the debut of Stargate in India.
TCS and OpenAI did not respond to ET’s queries. HT.com has not independently verified this information.
AI infrastructure in India
Talks of a potential TCS-OpenAI deal come at a time when India has emerged as ChatGPT’s largest user base outside the US, even as technology companies of all shapes and sizes flock to the world’s largest internet population for data to train their big-language models.
- Google has revealed 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 center powered by captive renewable energy sources and a sub-sea fiber-optic network.
- Microsoft Corporation It is investing $3 billion in India over the next few years to build local cloud (Azure) and AI infrastructure. The plan includes training one crore people with AI skills by 2030.
- Meta Platform Inc. Reliance Industries Ltd is investing $100 million in its upcoming AI data center in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
- Amazon Web Services has contributed $12.7 billion by 2030 to expand its cloud and AI infrastructure in India.
- Tata Consultancy Services has raised $1 billion from TPG for its AI venture called HyperVault. Together, they will build a 1 GW data center, which OpenAI is interested in.
- Reliance Industries LimitedWith Brookfield, it has announced an investment of $11 billion over five years to build a 1 GW AI data center in Vizag.
stargate in india
OpenAI, in collaboration with the government and Reliance Industries Limited, had started laying the groundwork for Stargate India. These negotiations failed. Since then, RIL has turned to longtime partners Google and Meta to fuel its AI ambitions under Reliance Intelligence.
To be sure, the Tata group – of which TCS is the flagship company – is not keen to dilute the stake or overindex on a single client like OpenAI for its AI data center business as they look to expand their offering to others like Anthropic as well, ET quoted sources as saying.
