HCLTech has announced plans to establish its first AI data centre at the upcoming Odisha Sovereign AI Park in Bhubaneswar. The project, being developed with Indian artificial-intelligence company Sarvam and the Government of Odisha, carries a planned capital outlay of ₹14,257 crore, including financial assistance from the state government.
The move places one of India’s biggest IT-services companies directly into the infrastructure layer of the AI market. HCLTech is also setting up a separate Global Technology Center in Bhubaneswar that is expected to house 5,000 people and begin operations by 2028.
What HCLTech and Sarvam plan to build
According to HCLTech’s announcement dated July 24, 2026, the data centre will combine the company’s full-stack AI capabilities with Sarvam’s foundation models. The partners intend to offer sector-specific and multilingual AI systems for government and private-sector customers.
HCLTech has not yet disclosed the facility’s computing capacity, power requirement or construction timeline. Those details will be important because AI data centres require large clusters of specialised accelerators, substantial electricity and advanced cooling systems. The stated investment is therefore a commitment to the project rather than a complete technical specification.
The company’s announcement follows its July 13 plan to enter the full-stack AI market. At that time, HCLTech said it could invest up to ₹3,500 crore in AI data centres with the potential to scale to 50MW. The much larger Odisha project outlay includes state financial assistance, which helps explain why the two figures should not be treated as directly comparable.
A 5,000-seat technology hub is planned separately
Alongside the data-centre project, HCLTech has signed an agreement with the Odisha government for a Global Technology Center in Bhubaneswar. The company says the centre will work on AI-led digital solutions for global enterprises, accommodate 5,000 people and start operations by 2028.
The two facilities serve different purposes. The data centre is intended to provide the computing foundation for AI workloads, while the technology centre will bring together employees working on engineering, delivery and customer projects. HCLTech says the latter will complement the infrastructure planned for the Sovereign AI Park.
Why sovereign AI matters for India
“Sovereign AI” generally refers to a country’s ability to develop and operate AI systems using infrastructure, models and data-governance arrangements that remain under domestic control. For Indian enterprises and public agencies, local infrastructure can be relevant where data residency, language support, security and regulatory oversight are major considerations.
Sarvam is central to that strategy. The Bengaluru-based company is developing Indian-language foundation models and related AI services. HCLTech led Sarvam’s recent funding round and agreed to acquire a 10.5% stake, a transaction that valued the startup at $1.5 billion. The new Odisha partnership therefore extends an existing financial relationship into infrastructure and product deployment.
Reuters reported on July 24 that Indian IT companies are increasing their exposure to data centres as demand for AI and cloud computing grows. The report also notes that HCLTech’s plan follows other large investments aimed at expanding India’s domestic AI-compute capacity.
What happens next
The announcement is significant, but several execution details are still pending. HCLTech and the Odisha government have not yet provided a commissioning date, accelerator supplier, energy mix or phased capacity plan for the AI data centre. Environmental clearances, grid availability and cooling design will also influence how quickly the project can move from an agreement to an operational facility.
Even with those questions open, the scale of the proposed outlay makes the Bhubaneswar project one of the most consequential Indian AI-infrastructure announcements of the year. Its longer-term impact will depend on whether the partners can turn local compute and Indian-language models into services that enterprises and government departments adopt at scale.
