HCLTech will set up its first artificial intelligence data centre in the upcoming Odisha Sovereign AI Park, committing ₹14,257 crore (approximately $1.7 billion) to the project. The IT major is partnering with Indian AI firm Sarvam and the Government of Odisha, which is providing financial assistance as part of the total capital outlay.
The facility is HCLTech’s entry point into the full-stack AI market. The firm said it would combine its own AI capabilities with Sarvam’s foundation models to offer sector-specific applications to both private and public-sector enterprises. The project is explicitly designed to address the Indian government’s data-sovereignty requirements.
In a parallel development, HCLTech signed a separate memorandum with the state to establish a Global Technology Centre in Bhubaneswar. That facility will house 5,000 employees and is expected to begin operations by 2028. It will focus on building AI-led digital solutions for global clients.
Why it matters for the corridor
This is a pure sovereign-AI infrastructure play — one of India’s largest IT services firms is placing a physical bet that governments and regulated industries will require domestic, controlled AI compute rather than relying entirely on hyperscale public clouds.
For global enterprises and investors watching the India-Gulf corridor, the Odisha project signals that state-level policy (incentives, dedicated parks, co-investment) is maturing fast enough to attract multi-billion-dollar digital infrastructure commitments. The partnership with Sarvam — a builder of Indic foundation models — makes the stack explicitly local, not just a data-centre shell.
"This is an important milestone in our full-stack AI play and will enable us to serve the large demand for sovereign AI solutions and unlock the scale of our strategic partnership with Sarvam," said HCLTech CEO & MD C Vijayakumar.
HCLTech currently employs over 170,000 people across India, including at its GIFT City campus — a location already central to the India-Gulf financial corridor. The new Bhubaneswar centre adds a large delivery footprint to an eastern state that until now has not been a tier-one tech-services hub.
