Tata Communications to plug Rs 4,350 crore in AI super highway

Tata Communications is set to invest Rs 4,350 crore to build around 10,000 km of AI-ready connectivity infrastructure across India, as it looks to tap rising demand for high-speed, low-latency links between data centres and AI hubs, the company announced on Monday.

The investment will fund a new network connecting key data-centre corridors, with the expansion planned in three phases between FY30 and FY36. The capital expenditure will be financed through operating cash flows.

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The proposed network will add about 6 petabits per second (Pbps) of capacity to Tata Communications' existing network capacity of 1.25 Pbps, which is currently utilised at around 70-80%, the company said in a regulatory filing.

The Tata entity expects the investment to help it capture growth in data-centre-to-data-centre connectivity as cloud adoption, AI deployment and enterprise demand for high-capacity digital infrastructure increase.

Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, managing director and chief executive of Tata Communications, said the data-centre-to-data-centre connectivity market in India could exceed $1 billion over the medium term.

The planned investment builds on the company's existing network infrastructure and is intended to position it to capture a larger share of the emerging market.

Lakshminarayanan said a growing proportion of the company's expansion was being driven by anchor customer commitments and contracted demand, providing a foundation for capital deployment and long-term growth.

The first phase of project development will focus on the Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Chennai corridor, which the company identifies as a key growth route for AI and hyperscale data centres. Subsequent phases will extend connectivity to emerging data-centre ecosystems in eastern and western India, including Vizag, Bhubaneswar, Jamnagar and GIFT City.

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The network will also connect key data-centre clusters with international cable landing stations and integrate with Tata Communications' global network backbone, enabling connectivity between Indian AI hubs and global markets, the company said.

Rupesh Chokshi, chief product and technology officer and executive vice-president and global business head for network services at Tata Communications, noted that AI workloads require high-capacity, resilient and low-latency connectivity alongside computing infrastructure.

Tata is designing the network with an aim to serve global hyperscalers, AI platforms, neocloud providers and enterprises. It will continue expanding its existing national long-distance and metro networks to support current enterprise and data-centre connectivity requirements.

Tata Communications operates a global network spanning more than 500,000 km of subsea optical fibre and over 200,000 km of terrestrial fibre. The planned AI network will build on this infrastructure as the company seeks to strengthen India's role in global cloud and AI connectivity.