Outgoing Infosys CEO Salil Parekh said the company had considered a data centre push but concluded that the investment required would neither suit its balance sheet nor deliver sufficient benefits.
“We’ve looked at that, and we are not planning to go into the data centre business,” Parekh told CNBC-TV18’s Shereen Bhan in an exclusive interview.
“We’ve looked at, from our perspective, our balance sheet, the potential cash required to build a data centre at scale, and then other requirements, which are essentially around energy projects,” he said.
“It’s something that we have decided, at this stage, will not benefit us, especially given our balance sheet, because some of the cash requirements could be quite massive.”
Parekh said the proposal had been examined by both the management and the board before Infosys decided against it.
The decision sets Infosys apart from larger rival Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is attempting to position itself across the AI value chain, from physical infrastructure to enterprise applications and consulting.
Indian IT companies and their path to AI adoption
The approaches taken by India’s top IT companies show that each is writing its own AI playbook.
TCS has launched HyperVault, an AI-ready data centre business that aims to establish more than one gigawatt of capacity in India. Private equity firm TPG has committed up to $1 billion to the venture, which will target hyperscalers, AI companies and enterprises seeking local infrastructure for sovereign and enterprise AI.
TCS is also working with AMD on an AI-ready data centre blueprint supporting up to 200 megawatts of capacity. The company said in July that its annualised AI services revenue had reached $2.6 billion after more than 5,500 client engagements.
Infosys, by contrast, is concentrating on the layer above infrastructure. Its strategy centres on helping customers select and deploy models, build AI agents and modernise existing technology systems. Parekh said AI accounted for more than 8% of Infosys’s revenue in the latest quarter and had recorded double-digit sequential growth for several quarters.
HCLTech is taking a more ownership-led approach. It invested $150 million in Indian AI company Sarvam, gaining exposure to model development, training infrastructure and enterprise deployment. It has also announced plans to invest up to ₹3,500 crore in AI data centres, including a facility in Bhubaneswar being developed with Sarvam and the Odisha government.
Wipro, meanwhile, is focusing on turning parts of its services portfolio into reusable AI platforms. It launched a dedicated AI-Native Business and Platforms unit in April to develop agentic AI offerings and pursue a SaaS model. Its Wipro Intelligence portfolio combines consulting, platforms and industry-specific solutions, building on an earlier commitment to invest $1 billion in AI capabilities and training.
Tech Mahindra is leaning on its industry expertise, particularly in telecommunications, while partnering with hyperscalers rather than owning large-scale computing infrastructure.
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