Tata Secures OpenAI as Anchor Client for India Data Centers

New Delhi, February 19, 2026: In a landmark development for India’s digital landscape, the Tata Group has officially secured OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, as its first anchor customer for its ambitious new data center business.

The announcement, made during the India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, marks a strategic pivot for India’s largest conglomerate and a massive vote of confidence in the country’s capacity to host world-class artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The “Stargate” Connection: 1 Gigawatt Vision

The partnership is a central pillar of OpenAI’s “OpenAI for India” initiative and fits into its broader global Stargate project—a multi-billion dollar plan to build specialized AI infrastructure for training and inference.

Under the agreement, OpenAI will utilize HyperVault, the newly established data center arm of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). The project will kick off with an initial capacity of 100 Megawatts (MW), with a clear roadmap to scale up to a staggering 1 Gigawatt (GW). This scale would place the Tata-OpenAI facility among the largest AI-optimized data centers globally.

Why This Matters for India

For years, Indian data has often been processed in servers located in the US or Europe. This deal changes the narrative:

1. Sovereign AI & Data Residency: By hosting models locally, OpenAI can meet India’s strict data residency and security requirements. This is particularly crucial for “mission-critical” sectors like government services, healthcare, and finance.
2. Lower Latency: Indian developers and enterprises will experience significantly faster response times (lower latency) when using OpenAI’s advanced models, such as GPT-4o and its successors.
3. Industry-Specific Solutions: TCS and OpenAI are not just stopping at infrastructure. They have committed to co-developing “Agentic AI” solutions tailored for industries like manufacturing, retail, and banking, leveraging TCS’s deep domain expertise.

The Tata Group’s AI Integration

The collaboration is a “two-way street.” While OpenAI becomes a customer of Tata’s infrastructure, the Tata Group is becoming a massive consumer of OpenAI’s technology:

• ChatGPT Enterprise: Tata Sons Chairman N. Chandrasekaran confirmed that the group will deploy ChatGPT Enterprise to its hundreds of thousands of employees, starting with TCS.
• Software Development: TCS plans to integrate OpenAI’s Codex into its software development life cycle to boost productivity for its global client base.

A Competitive AI Landscape

This deal comes at a time of intense competition in the Indian AI space. Rival giants like Reliance Industries and the Adani Group have also announced massive investments in AI compute hubs, with Adani pledging $100 billion toward data centers by 2035.

However, by securing OpenAI—the world’s most prominent AI startup—as its first customer, the Tata Group has seized a significant “first-mover” advantage in the race to build the “infrastructure of intelligence.”

Leadership Quotes

“India is already leading the way in AI adoption. Through ‘OpenAI for India,’ we are working to build the infrastructure, skills, and local partnerships needed to build AI with India, for India, and in India.” — Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI.

“This strategic collaboration marks a major milestone in India’s vision to become a global leader in AI. We are establishing India’s first large-scale, AI-optimized infrastructure for next-generation training and inference.” — N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman, Tata Sons.

Market Reaction

The news sent ripples through the stock market, with TCS shares rising nearly 2% following the announcement. Investors view the move as a vital diversification for TCS, moving it beyond traditional IT services into the high-margin world of AI infrastructure and cloud provisioning.

As India prepares to host over 100 million weekly ChatGPT users, the Tata-OpenAI alliance ensures that the backbone of this digital revolution remains firmly rooted on Indian soil.