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Tata Communications plans to invest up to $450 million over the next three to five years to build a 10,000-kilometre fibre network connecting India’s major artificial intelligence (AI) and data centre hubs, positioning itself to capture a larger share of the country's expanding AI connectivity market.
The company announced the proposed AI Super Highway on October 26, with investment expected to range between $400 million and $450 million. The network will provide high-capacity connectivity between data centres, cloud service providers, global capability centres and enterprises as demand for data-intensive AI workloads grows.
The first phase will connect Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai, linking major data centre and hyperscale infrastructure locations. Subsequent phases will expand the network towards Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar in eastern India, alongside Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar and GIFT City in Gujarat.
The planned infrastructure is designed to provide 7.2 petabytes of capacity, according to the company's announcement, and will integrate with Tata Communications; global network backbone. Connections to international cable landing stations will help link Indian data centres with overseas digital infrastructure.
Tata Communications is targeting a 30–40% share of the addressable data centre-to-data centre connectivity market, according to company executives cited by Moneycontrol. The company estimates that the overall Indian market could exceed $1 billion over the medium term.
Customer discussions are underway, but the company has not announced contracts specifically for the proposed network, Moneycontrol reported. The investment will be funded through operating cash flows, with meaningful financial contributions expected around the 2028–29 financial year as infrastructure is deployed and capacity becomes operational.
The network is intended to serve hyperscale cloud providers, emerging cloud infrastructure operators, AI developers, technology companies and large enterprises. These customers require high bandwidth, low latency and resilient connections to move data between computing facilities and support increasingly distributed AI workloads.
The investment reflects a growing infrastructure challenge for India’s AI industry. Expanding computing capacity alone is not sufficient to support large-scale AI deployment; data centres also need reliable, high-capacity links to exchange data efficiently.
By expanding its fibre network, Tata Communications is seeking to strengthen its position in a market shaped by rising AI adoption, cloud expansion and data centre investment. The project's commercial performance will depend on customer demand, network deployment and the pace at which new capacity is taken up.
The company announced the proposed AI Super Highway on October 26, with investment expected to range between $400 million and $450 million. The network will provide high-capacity connectivity between data centres, cloud service providers, global capability centres and enterprises as demand for data-intensive AI workloads grows.
The first phase will connect Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad and Chennai, linking major data centre and hyperscale infrastructure locations. Subsequent phases will expand the network towards Visakhapatnam and Bhubaneswar in eastern India, alongside Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Jamnagar and GIFT City in Gujarat.
The planned infrastructure is designed to provide 7.2 petabytes of capacity, according to the company's announcement, and will integrate with Tata Communications; global network backbone. Connections to international cable landing stations will help link Indian data centres with overseas digital infrastructure.
Tata Communications is targeting a 30–40% share of the addressable data centre-to-data centre connectivity market, according to company executives cited by Moneycontrol. The company estimates that the overall Indian market could exceed $1 billion over the medium term.
Customer discussions are underway, but the company has not announced contracts specifically for the proposed network, Moneycontrol reported. The investment will be funded through operating cash flows, with meaningful financial contributions expected around the 2028–29 financial year as infrastructure is deployed and capacity becomes operational.
The network is intended to serve hyperscale cloud providers, emerging cloud infrastructure operators, AI developers, technology companies and large enterprises. These customers require high bandwidth, low latency and resilient connections to move data between computing facilities and support increasingly distributed AI workloads.
The investment reflects a growing infrastructure challenge for India’s AI industry. Expanding computing capacity alone is not sufficient to support large-scale AI deployment; data centres also need reliable, high-capacity links to exchange data efficiently.
By expanding its fibre network, Tata Communications is seeking to strengthen its position in a market shaped by rising AI adoption, cloud expansion and data centre investment. The project's commercial performance will depend on customer demand, network deployment and the pace at which new capacity is taken up.
