HCL Technologies has revealed plans to invest ₹14,257 crore to construct its inaugural AI data centre at the forthcoming Odisha Sovereign AI Park in Bhubaneswar, teaming up with Bengaluru-based AI startup Sarvam and the Odisha government.
This investment will include support from the state government and signifies HCL Tech’s entry into India’s burgeoning sovereign AI infrastructure market.
The new data centre is part of HCL Tech’s recent push into the full-stack AI realm, utilizing its AI expertise alongside Sarvam’s foundational models to create tailored AI applications for various sectors.
The facility aims to enhance India’s sovereign AI landscape by providing multilingual AI services to reach underserved areas, catering to the needs of both private and public sector enterprises while fulfilling government sovereignty standards.
A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for this initiative was signed in the presence of Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, along with senior officials from the state government and executives from HCL Tech and Sarvam.
Roshni Nadar Malhotra, Chairperson of HCL Tech, expressed the company’s commitment to supporting India’s sovereign AI ecosystem by offering unique solutions throughout the value chain, aligned with the goals of Digital India and Atmanirbhar Bharat.
The Odisha Sovereign AI Park is envisioned as a specialized innovation hub that combines high-performance computing facilities, talent development, research initiatives, startups, global enterprises, and government applications within a unified campus.
This development aims to establish Odisha as a significant producer and exporter of computing resources to other regions, marking a pivotal achievement in India’s digital economy.
Partner Sarvam AI has quickly ascended to a leading position in the Indian AI sector, creating foundational models like Sarvam-30B and Sarvam-105B, which support over 22 Indian languages.
Recently, Sarvam AI entered the unicorn club after securing $234 million in its Series B funding round, achieving a valuation of $1.5 billion, and was allocated 4,096 NVIDIA H100 GPUs under the IndiaAI Mission for developing indigenous foundational models.
This investment arrives at a time when global demand for data centres is predicted to nearly triple by 2030 due to the rise of AI, with even faster growth expected in India.
