New Delhi: Private investments in India's artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure are projected to potentially double from the previous year's $70 billion to approximately $140 billion by the conclusion of the ongoing financial year (FY26), according to Union Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The minister made this significant announcement on Friday, highlighting the remarkable growth trajectory of AI-related capital infusion in the country.
AI Infrastructure: Data Centres and GPU-Based Compute
Artificial intelligence infrastructure encompasses critical components such as data centres and cloud computing servers equipped with advanced graphic processing units (GPUs). These facilities form the backbone of AI development and deployment, enabling complex computations and data processing at scale.
"As far as AI infrastructure is concerned, so far we have already seen $70 billion in investments that are already on ground and in the execution phase. The way we see enthusiasm, we shouldn't be surprised if this number doubles by the end of the Summit," Vaishnaw stated emphatically.
India's AI Impact Summit: Global Gathering
Vaishnaw was addressing journalists in preparation for India's upcoming AI Impact Summit, scheduled to take place in New Delhi from February 15 to February 20. This prestigious event will witness participation from 14 heads of state alongside at least 30 prominent industry leaders and academic experts.
The distinguished attendees include Stanford University's renowned AI researcher Fei-Fei Li, Google DeepMind chief Demis Hassabis, former Meta chief scientist Yann LeCun, and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, among other luminaries from the global AI ecosystem.
This gathering marks the fourth global AI Summit, following previous editions hosted by the United Kingdom, South Korea, and France. India's primary objective for the summit is to achieve consensus on ten actionable points concerning the worldwide development of artificial intelligence.
Sovereign AI Models on Display
A notable highlight of the summit will be the presentation of a "bouquet of sovereign AI models," which will be officially launched and demonstrated during the event next month. These models represent India's strategic approach to developing indigenous AI capabilities while maintaining technological sovereignty.
Recent Investment Surge in AI Infrastructure
Investments in AI infrastructure through data centre development have accelerated significantly during the current fiscal year. Several major announcements have underscored this trend:
- On October 9, Tata Consultancy Services revealed plans to invest $6.5 billion over five years to construct 1 gigawatt (GW) of AI-ready data centre capacity.
- On November 20, US-based asset management firm TPG committed $1 billion to support TCS's AI data centre initiatives.
- On October 14, Google announced a $15 billion investment to build a 1GW data centre in partnership with the domestic Adani Group.
- On December 9, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella declared a $17.5 billion outlay with primary focus on AI data centres.
- On the same day, Amazon revealed plans to invest $35 billion in India over five years, though specific allocation for data centres remains unspecified.
- On November 26, Reliance Industries' data centre joint venture announced an $11 billion, five-year investment for a 1GW data centre facility.
- On January 20, AM Green, a subsidiary of homegrown green energy firm Greenko Group, stated it would invest $25 billion over five years for a data centre of equivalent capacity.
Beyond GPU-Intensive Infrastructure
Minister Vaishnaw offered a nuanced perspective, suggesting that GPU-based capital-intensive facilities might not represent the exclusive path forward for AI infrastructure development.
"AI around the world is progressing at a rapid pace, and today, various leading companies and their competitors are all working on newer forms of more accessible compute, as well as building small language models (SLMs) that can even run on a laptop. As a result, reliance on high-capex compute may not remain the same as it is today," the minister explained.
India's Government-Backed Compute Base
Vaishnaw added that India's innovative approach to creating a government-supported common compute base "has been noticed by the world," with "many nations appreciating it and discussing it."
"The way forward is sector-specific small AI models, and most industry experts I'm speaking with say that such small models are sufficient to provide for the needs of enterprise AI use cases," he elaborated, highlighting a strategic shift toward more targeted and efficient AI solutions.
Industry Perspective on Investment Trends
Technology industry experts acknowledge that access to AI infrastructure will likely continue attracting substantial investment into India throughout the year, though capital deployment may adopt a more measured approach over time.
Sanchir Vir Gogia, Chief Executive of technology consultancy firm Greyhound Research, commented: "Capital will continue to come in, that much is clear. India is now firmly on the global data centre map, and the drivers that pulled money in during 2025 have not weakened. Enterprise demand continues to rise, hyperscalers are still expanding, and AI has pushed compute decisions into boardrooms rather than IT backrooms. At the same time, sovereign cloud has moved from policy language into procurement reality. All of this sustains investor interest."
A Note of Caution
However, Gogia offered a tempered outlook regarding investment patterns: "Where the confusion creeps in is the assumption that because 2025 saw an unusually large wave of announced investments, 2026 must automatically match or beat it on the same headline metric—that is not how infrastructure cycles normally behave. A large portion of last year's capital surge was driven by signalling, big-campus declarations and long-horizon projects. Such announcement-heavy years are difficult to repeat back to back."
This perspective suggests that while India's AI infrastructure sector remains fundamentally strong and attractive to investors, the nature of capital deployment may evolve toward more sustainable and strategically focused investments rather than maintaining the extraordinary announcement volumes witnessed in the previous year.
