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IT rout deepens; Ola Electric narrows Q3 losses
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Indian IT stocks took a beating for the third straight session amid fears over AI-led disruption. This and more in today’s ETtech Top 5.
Also in the letter:
■ Anthropic’s mega round
■ Oracle doubles down in India
■ Pay hikes to remain
Shares of IT majors Infosys and Wipro fell sharply on Friday, extending losses amid investor worries over AI-led disruption. The Nifty IT index logged its third straight day of decline after dropping 5.5% in the previous session.
The drop:
For context: Markets are reacting to rising concerns that AI tools could change how software and IT services are delivered, putting pressure on margins and traditional outsourcing models.
Also Read: Explained: What is Anthropic's AI tool that's sparking job loss fears
The latest trigger came after Anthropic said its Claude platform can automate legal workflows such as contract review, non-disclosure agreement triage, compliance processes, legal brief preparation and standardised responses.
Also Read: Claude Cowork’s debut signals start of enterprise automation
Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO, Ola Electric
Ola Electric reported narrower losses in the December quarter, even as revenue declined sharply and service execution challenges weighed on demand.
Financials
What else? The company said gaps in service execution affected customer confidence, though it attributed the issue to service infrastructure rather than product quality. Ola cited an independent survey showing 90% overall product satisfaction and strong repurchase intent among users.
Company statement: “As EV penetration growth has slowed and our service execution has required strengthening, we chose to realign our retail footprint, cost structure, and operating model to a sustainable steady state by fixing the fundamentals and not optimising for short-term volume,” the company said.
Also Read: ETtech Explainer: Was Lenskart’s Q3 profit spike structural or a one-off
Sanjeev Bikhchandani, founder, Info Edge
Info Edge, the parent company of recruitment platform Naukri, posted steady growth in the December quarter, as both the recruitment and non-recruitment businesses continued to expand despite an uncertain hiring environment.
Financials:
Segment performance:
Macro environment: Managing director and chief executive Hitesh Oberoi said the hiring environment remains uneven.
“The hiring environment remains uncertain, as evident from our jobspeak index as well. Despite this backdrop, the business delivered close to 10% year-on-year growth in billings in Q3, similar to the growth seen in Q2. Billing for the technology, IT, and BPM segment combined grew at 14% year-on-year, GCCs grew at 13%, recruitment consultants grew at 5%, and all the other sectors combined grew at 2%,” he said during a post-earnings call.
Dario Amodei, CEO, Anthropic
AI startup Anthropic has raised $30 billion in a funding round, taking its post-money valuation to $380 billion, as investor appetite for frontier AI companies remains strong.
Round details:
Anthropic said its annualised revenue run rate has reached $14 billion, adding that the company has expanded more than tenfold each year over the past three years.
Musk’s slam: Elon Musk, founder of rival AI company xAI, criticised Anthropic following the announcement, calling its models “misanthropic and evil.” He claimed the AI “hates Whites & Asians, especially Chinese, heterosexuals and men,” and urged the company to address the issue.
Musk has previously made similar remarks, using wordplay on Anthropic’s name.
Background: The raise comes as agentic AI tools gain traction and pressure traditional software service pricing models.
Also Read: Fear factor: Claude Cowork, techies no work?
Oracle is scaling up its cloud presence in India as enterprises move from AI pilots to full-scale deployment.
What’s happening?
The company expects AI inference, rather than model training, to drive the next phase of enterprise adoption.
What else? Oracle recently rolled out its AI data platform.
Many companies are unlikely to temper salary hikes this appraisal season, thanks to higher wage bills due to the implementation of new labour codes. However, increments may be affected in some select sectors, such as information technology, according to industry experts.
What happened? Costs of benefits such as gratuity, overtime, bonus, and leave encashment have increased after the new labour codes took effect in November 2025, as these will be calculated using the new wage definition.
What next? Organisations are taking different approaches to funding the impact of new labour codes. Some are carving out a separate budget for these costs, while others are absorbing them within the overall salary pool
Also in the letter:
■ Anthropic’s mega round
■ Oracle doubles down in India
■ Pay hikes to remain
Infosys, Wipro and other IT stocks slide up to 6% as AI fears continue to hammer tech pack
Shares of IT majors Infosys and Wipro fell sharply on Friday, extending losses amid investor worries over AI-led disruption. The Nifty IT index logged its third straight day of decline after dropping 5.5% in the previous session.
The drop:
- Infosys share declined 5.51% to Rs 1,31 when the markets opened and closed at Rs 1,369.50 apiece
- Wipro's share fell 3.37% to Rs 211.70 and closed at Rs 214.10.
For context: Markets are reacting to rising concerns that AI tools could change how software and IT services are delivered, putting pressure on margins and traditional outsourcing models.
Also Read: Explained: What is Anthropic's AI tool that's sparking job loss fears
The latest trigger came after Anthropic said its Claude platform can automate legal workflows such as contract review, non-disclosure agreement triage, compliance processes, legal brief preparation and standardised responses.
Also Read: Claude Cowork’s debut signals start of enterprise automation
Ola Electric’s revenue halves in Q3 to Rs 470 crore amid restructuring; losses narrow
Ola Electric reported narrower losses in the December quarter, even as revenue declined sharply and service execution challenges weighed on demand.
Financials
- Losses: Reduced to Rs 487 crore from Rs 564 crore year-on-year (YoY).
- Revenue from operations: Fell 55% YoY to Rs 470 crore.
- Adjusted operating Ebitda (Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation): Reduced to Rs 323 crore from Rs 494 crore
What else? The company said gaps in service execution affected customer confidence, though it attributed the issue to service infrastructure rather than product quality. Ola cited an independent survey showing 90% overall product satisfaction and strong repurchase intent among users.
Company statement: “As EV penetration growth has slowed and our service execution has required strengthening, we chose to realign our retail footprint, cost structure, and operating model to a sustainable steady state by fixing the fundamentals and not optimising for short-term volume,” the company said.
Also Read: ETtech Explainer: Was Lenskart’s Q3 profit spike structural or a one-off
Info Edge posts 13% growth in operating revenue; profit at Rs 317 crore
Info Edge, the parent company of recruitment platform Naukri, posted steady growth in the December quarter, as both the recruitment and non-recruitment businesses continued to expand despite an uncertain hiring environment.
Financials:
- Operating revenue: Up 13% year-on-year to Rs 819 crore.
- Net profit: Increased 10% to Rs 317 crore from Rs 288 crore a year earlier.
Segment performance:
- Recruitment solutions business (Naukri.com): grew 12% YoY to Rs 591 crore.
- Real estate listing portal (99acres): Revenue climbed 14% to Rs 118 crore.
- Other businesses (Jeevansaathi.com and Shiksha.com): Nearly 20% growth to Rs 109 crore.
Macro environment: Managing director and chief executive Hitesh Oberoi said the hiring environment remains uneven.
“The hiring environment remains uncertain, as evident from our jobspeak index as well. Despite this backdrop, the business delivered close to 10% year-on-year growth in billings in Q3, similar to the growth seen in Q2. Billing for the technology, IT, and BPM segment combined grew at 14% year-on-year, GCCs grew at 13%, recruitment consultants grew at 5%, and all the other sectors combined grew at 2%,” he said during a post-earnings call.
Anthropic raises $30 billion at $380 billion valuation, hits $14 billion run rate
AI startup Anthropic has raised $30 billion in a funding round, taking its post-money valuation to $380 billion, as investor appetite for frontier AI companies remains strong.
Round details:
- GIC and Coatue led the round.
- Co-leads included DE Shaw Ventures, Dragoneer, Founders Fund, ICONIQ, and MGX.
- Additional investors included Sequoia Capital, Accel, and Temasek, among others.
Anthropic said its annualised revenue run rate has reached $14 billion, adding that the company has expanded more than tenfold each year over the past three years.
Musk’s slam: Elon Musk, founder of rival AI company xAI, criticised Anthropic following the announcement, calling its models “misanthropic and evil.” He claimed the AI “hates Whites & Asians, especially Chinese, heterosexuals and men,” and urged the company to address the issue.
Musk has previously made similar remarks, using wordplay on Anthropic’s name.
Background: The raise comes as agentic AI tools gain traction and pressure traditional software service pricing models.
- Products such as Anthropic’s Claude Cowork and OpenAI’s Agent platform are pushing automation deeper into enterprise workflows.
- Some industry observers believe these AI tools could accelerate AI adoption rather than reduce demand.
- Others caution that Indian IT companies may face pressure if they fail to move beyond basic outsourcing-led models.
Also Read: Fear factor: Claude Cowork, techies no work?
Oracle expands India cloud footprint on infra business’ boom
Oracle is scaling up its cloud presence in India as enterprises move from AI pilots to full-scale deployment.
What’s happening?
- Oracle plans to launch its services within Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the coming weeks.
- This will take its total cloud footprint in India to five regions, said Chris Chelliah, senior vice president for Technology and Customer Strategy at Oracle Japan and Asia Pacific.
- Oracle already operates two Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) regions in India and runs multi-cloud deployments on Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud.
The company expects AI inference, rather than model training, to drive the next phase of enterprise adoption.
What else? Oracle recently rolled out its AI data platform.
- System integrators and consultancies, including Accenture, Cognizant, Infosys, and LTIMindtree, have committed about $1.5 billion to the ecosystem.
- Chelliah said momentum is rising as the platform integrates with existing enterprise tools and workflows.
Labour code unlikely to weigh on pay hikes
Many companies are unlikely to temper salary hikes this appraisal season, thanks to higher wage bills due to the implementation of new labour codes. However, increments may be affected in some select sectors, such as information technology, according to industry experts.
What happened? Costs of benefits such as gratuity, overtime, bonus, and leave encashment have increased after the new labour codes took effect in November 2025, as these will be calculated using the new wage definition.
What next? Organisations are taking different approaches to funding the impact of new labour codes. Some are carving out a separate budget for these costs, while others are absorbing them within the overall salary pool
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I agree to receive newsletters and marketing communications via e-mail