Adani Group plans $100bn investment in AI

India’s Adani Group announced on Tuesday that it will invest $100 billion by 2035 to build hyperscale AI-ready data centres, supporting the country’s ambition to become a global artificial intelligence hub.

The announcement coincides with a five-day global AI summit hosted by India, where leaders and industry executives are discussing issues such as job disruption, regulation and child safety in the age of artificial intelligence. Around 20 national leaders and 45 ministerial-level delegations are expected to attend the key sessions later this week, alongside technology executives including Sam Altman of OpenAI and Sundar Pichai of Google.

In a statement, the Adani Group said the planned investment would help catalyse an additional $150 billion in spending across related sectors, including server manufacturing, advanced electrical infrastructure, sovereign cloud platforms and other supporting industries. Together, the group projects the creation of a $250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem in India over the next decade.

The conglomerate, whose businesses span ports, energy and infrastructure, said its AI strategy will be anchored by partnerships with Google and Microsoft. Google is aiming to establish a large data centre campus in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam as part of the broader push to expand digital infrastructure in the country.

The group added that it is in discussions with other major technology companies interested in building large-scale AI campuses across India, further strengthening its position as a key infrastructure partner in the sector.

India recently climbed to third place in a global ranking of AI competitiveness compiled by researchers at Stanford University, surpassing South Korea and Japan. However, analysts caution that despite rapid progress and ambitious investment plans, India still faces significant challenges if it hopes to compete with the United States and China in advanced AI development.