HCLTech's Rs 1,427 crore investment in AI startup Sarvam AI is aimed at strengthening the company's long-term position in the emerging sovereign AI market rather than driving immediate revenue growth, according to Managing Director and CEO C Vijayakumar.
Speaking to NDTV Profit, Vijayakumar said the partnership was driven by strategic relevance and future growth opportunities, while acknowledging that the deal would have only a limited impact on HCLTech's revenue in FY27.
"The partnership is done with relevance and long-term growth in mind," Vijayakumar said. "We are not specifically aiming at revenue growth via this deal."
The investment gives HCLTech a 10.46% stake in Sarvam AI and anchors the first close of the startup's Series B funding round. Sarvam AI has secured $234 million so far out of a targeted $300 million, taking its post-money valuation to $1.5 billion and elevating it to unicorn status.
Vijayakumar said the partnership is part of HCLTech's broader strategy to deepen its presence in artificial intelligence and build capabilities in sovereign AI, which he described as the company's sixth growth vector.
"We aim to increase our relevance in AI with this partnership," he said, adding that sovereign AI represents a significant long-term opportunity for both organisations.
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While the company does not expect a material financial contribution in the near term, Vijayakumar said HCLTech sees substantial growth potential in the sovereign AI market and expects the partnership to support a 30% sales growth opportunity in the segment over time.
The executive noted that Sarvam AI brings valuable infrastructure capabilities to the table, particularly in an area where access to computing resources is becoming increasingly important.
"Sarvam has a great AI infrastructure-building strategy," he said.
According to Vijayakumar, future AI infrastructure is likely to be hybrid in nature, combining multiple computing environments and deployment models. He added that Sarvam AI gives HCLTech an edge in driving sovereign AI capabilities in India.
One of the differentiators highlighted by HCLTech is Sarvam's ownership of what it described as NVIDIA's first AI cluster in India. The IT services company expects to work closely with the startup to scale AI computing clusters further as demand for advanced AI workloads rises.
The partnership also reflects HCLTech's broader commitment to building an AI-first organisation internally.
Vijayakumar said the company wants its employees to become "super-users" of AI technologies and leverage AI tools extensively across functions. He also pointed to India's strong research and academic talent pool as a key advantage in the country's efforts to develop indigenous AI capabilities.
The investment marks one of the largest strategic bets by an Indian IT services company on a domestic AI startup and underscores the growing importance of sovereign AI as governments and enterprises seek greater control over AI models, data and infrastructure.
Sarvam AI specialises in building foundational AI models trained from scratch in India and designed for the country's linguistic diversity, complex datasets and large-scale digital ecosystem. Through the partnership, HCLTech aims to combine its enterprise reach and digital transformation expertise with Sarvam's homegrown AI technology and infrastructure capabilities.
Vijayakumar said the investment is also a reflection of HCLTech's intention to pursue more AI-focused partnerships in the future, as the company seeks to remain relevant in a rapidly evolving technology landscape shaped by generative AI and foundation models.
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