The $30-billion-plus NTT Data is the third largest globally serving 75% of the Fortune Global 100 companies and is the largest data centre operator in the country with a third of the around $2-billion market pie with close to 290 mw of operational capacity, serving over 3,000 clients and adding another 400 mw in Mumbai. The Tokyo-headquartered NTT Data Inc global chief executive Abhijit Dubey tells Benn Kochuveedan that the global technology giant, having invested over $3 billion in the past decade here, will pump in another $1.5 billion or $500 million annually for the next three years to achieve the target of doubling its business here. Edited Excerpts:
NTT has been here for close to two decades and over a decade as the data centre operator, something you pioneered here. How has been the journey and where does India stand now within your group?
We have a large investment to accelerate our digital business here. Over the next three years we will invest $500 million each year, taking over cumulative capex to close to $5 billion here, of which we’ve already pumped in over $3 billion here. Our key initiatives include expanding our AI Innovation Centre in Bengaluru, deploying the MIST submarine cable system to enhance global connectivity at an investment of $400 million, and launching the country’s largest data center campus in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai with 290 mw in operations, which will go up by 200 mw shortly.
These investments reinforce our commitment to India, aiming to make it a top-five market within three years from the top 10 now.
When it comes to our data centre business here, we are already the undisputed market leader both in terms of capacity as well as revenue with a third of the total market share, which makes India our fifth largest. However, given the intense competition and the faster growth I don’t see the position changing even though we will be growing at a much faster pace given our ongoing investments towards capacity addition.
The 8,100-km submarine cable that can carry over 200 terabits per second (Tbps) is one of the largest cables in Asia, and will connect India with Singapore via Malaysia and Thailand. While the landing station is Chennai it will extend to all the key data centre markets such as Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. The MIST (Malaysia, India, Singapore transit) submarine cable system will be live by June 2025. It was connected to Mumbai landing station in February 2023 and the Chennai landing station in May 2023.
What is your hiring plan in India and how many people do you have here now?
Data centres are not a people-intensive industry. Yet we employ 700 here now, and will be adding more headcounts as we expand our operational capacity as we sharpen our focus on India as a key growth driver for our global operations. At the group level, India is the largest employer outside our home market of Japan with over 40,000 people most of them in our IT services and delivery centre businesses.
How do you look at the enabling role of AI in your operations?
The world has transformed to digital at a much faster pace than we can build data centres. Pre-AI, we were looking at about 15% growth in the data centre business globally but post-AI, that’s added about five to seven points of additional growth. But over a third of our business globally are AI-driven making us the leaders in AI adoption when it comes to data centres with over 200 mw of AI load deployed already.
The emergence of cost-efficient AI models, such as Chinese startup DeepSeek’s R1, has also benefited us. We specialise in AI inferencing-oriented data centres rather than large-scale frontier model training.
You are upgrading and expanding the innovation centre in Bengaluru. How does this align with the company’s global AI strategy? What kind of R&D are you looking to do in India?
Providing AI infrastructure is one thing. And helping enterprise clients transform using AI, whether it's their business processes or launching new products and services or becoming more efficient in their operations, is another thing.
With the innovation centre, we’re now looking at massive expansion, both in terms of capacity and capabilities, and to focus on three domains: AI, quantum and digital twin. The Bengaluru centre is part of our global network of innovation centres in 11 countries. The R&D that happens here is going to focus on global clients, not just Indian clients. India is already our delivery and innovation hub for global clients; this is just a reiteration of the commitment.