Tata Communications to invest USD $450 million in AI network

Tata Communications will invest nearly USD $450 million to build an AI superhighway in India, adding about 10,000km of long-haul fibre links across the country.

The network is intended to connect key AI and data centre corridors, beginning with the Mumbai-Pune-Hyderabad-Chennai route before extending to Vizag, Bhubaneswar, Jamnagar and GIFT City.

The build-out will take place over several years and will be integrated with Tata Communications' wider international backbone and subsea cable systems, linking Indian data centre clusters with overseas markets across Asia, Europe, the Middle East and North America.

The investment comes as India's data centre sector expands on the back of cloud adoption, AI deployment, data localisation requirements and enterprise demand for digital infrastructure. Tata Communications is targeting demand from hyperscalers, cloud providers, AI platforms, digital businesses and multinational companies operating in India.

The company plans to extend connectivity to more than 100 data centres, including newer Tier III and Tier IV facilities. It will also continue expanding its existing national long-distance and metro network alongside the new fibre programme.

Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, set out the commercial case for the move. "We are excited about the opportunity in the India data centre-to-data centre connectivity, which we believe could evolve into a market exceeding USD 1 billion over the medium term. With our planned investments, we are building on our existing strengths to create one of the most comprehensive data centre connectivity platforms in the market, positioning us to capture this significant growth opportunity. As we scale, a growing proportion of our expansion is being driven by anchor customer commitments and contracted demand, providing a strong foundation for sustainable growth, efficient capital deployment and long-term value creation," he said.

The first phase centres on one of India's busiest routes for digital infrastructure investment, linking Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai. Later phases are expected to extend into east coast and western Indian data centre markets, where operators and customers are increasingly seeking sites beyond the main metro hubs.

Network build-out

The project is intended to create one of India's larger AI-focused connectivity networks. It is being designed to provide low-latency links between data centre campuses and international cable landing stations, an increasingly important requirement as AI workloads move between training, storage and inference environments across different sites.

Connectivity has become a more prominent issue in the data centre market as operators build larger campuses and customers seek resilient links between compute clusters. Demand has also shifted towards denser and more geographically diverse fibre routes to reduce risk and improve performance between facilities.

Rupesh Chokshi, Chief Product and Technology Officer, Executive Vice President and Global Business Head - Network Services, said the network reflects that shift. "The AI economy needs more than compute. It needs a network built for speed, scale and resilience. Tata Communications has long played a foundational role in enabling India's digital economy, and our AI Network Fabric builds on that legacy. Our AI Network Fabric will give our global customers the ultra-low-latency, high-capacity and resilient connectivity they need to scale AI with confidence. By connecting India's AI and data center hubs to the world, we are enabling our customers to grow and helping fuel India's next chapter of economic growth," he said.

Global links

The domestic expansion comes alongside Tata Communications' recent moves in subsea connectivity between India and Singapore. The company has outlined plans for new cable infrastructure on that route and has also highlighted earlier work on its intra-Asia cable systems.

Its wider network footprint includes more than 500,000km of subsea optical fibre and more than 200,000km of terrestrial fibre, according to the company. By tying the new Indian long-haul routes into that backbone, Tata Communications is seeking to strengthen its position in the market for cross-border cloud and AI traffic.

For India, the announcement underlines the growing focus on network infrastructure as a complement to data centre construction. As more capacity comes online, operators and customers are placing greater weight on how facilities connect with one another and with overseas hubs, particularly for AI-related workloads that depend on fast, resilient data movement.

Lakshminarayanan said the market for India data centre-to-data centre connectivity could exceed USD $1 billion over the medium term.