OpenAI has forged a strategic partnership with India’s Tata Group, announcing plans to secure an initial 100 megawatts of AI-ready data center capacity in the country, with an ambitious vision to scale this to 1 gigawatt over time. This significant move is integral to OpenAI’s broader strategy to enhance its enterprise and infrastructure presence within India, recognized as one of its most rapidly expanding markets. The collaboration, revealed on Thursday, is a cornerstone of OpenAI’s ‘Stargate project,’ an initiative dedicated to constructing robust AI-ready infrastructure and accelerating enterprise adoption globally.

Under this partnership, OpenAI is set to become the inaugural customer of Tata Consultancy Services’ (TCS) HyperVault data center business, commencing with the specified 100 megawatts of capacity. A crucial aspect of the agreement involves the deployment of ChatGPT Enterprise across the extensive Tata workforce. Furthermore, the partnership aims to standardize AI-native software development through the utilization of OpenAI’s advanced tools. The establishment of local data center capacity is critical for OpenAI, as it will enable the company to operate its most sophisticated models directly within India. This domestic hosting capability promises to significantly reduce latency for users while simultaneously addressing vital data residency, security, and compliance requirements, especially pertinent for regulated sectors and government workloads. This localized compute infrastructure is paramount for enterprises managing sensitive data and operating under stringent data localization and digital infrastructure regulations, thereby potentially broadening OpenAI’s access to a wider array of enterprise customers requiring in-country processing.

The initial commitment of 100 megawatts represents a substantial investment within the AI infrastructure landscape, where the intensive demands of large-scale model training and inference necessitate power-hungry clusters of graphics processing units (GPUs). The long-term aspiration to scale to 1 gigawatt would position the Tata facility among the largest AI-focused data center deployments worldwide, unequivocally underscoring the immense scale of OpenAI’s strategic ambitions in India. Beyond the foundational infrastructure, OpenAI and Tata Group are committed to a strategic enterprise collaboration designed to accelerate the adoption of AI across all of Tata’s diverse businesses. The conglomerate plans a phased rollout of ChatGPT Enterprise to its entire workforce over the coming years, initiating with hundreds of thousands of employees at Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which is poised to be one of the largest enterprise AI deployments globally.

TCS also intends to leverage OpenAI’s Codex tools to standardize its AI-native software development practices across its engineering teams. N Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, emphasized that the partnership with OpenAI would be instrumental in constructing “state-of-the-art AI infrastructure in India” while also supporting nationwide efforts to equip the country’s workforce with essential skills for the evolving AI era. While the financial specifics of the deal, including whether OpenAI will make a capital investment in HyperVault or opt for capacity leasing, were not disclosed, it is known that in November 2025, TCS secured backing from private equity firm TPG to advance AI-ready infrastructure in India through its HyperVault data center business. This platform is supported by approximately ₹180 billion (equivalent to about $2 billion) in planned investment and is meticulously engineered to accommodate large-scale compute workloads for hyperscalers and major enterprise customers.

As part of its expanding presence under the “OpenAI for India” initiative, OpenAI will also extend its certification programs within India, with TCS becoming the first participating organization outside the United States. These certification programs are meticulously designed to empower professionals across various roles and industries with practical AI skills. This initiative follows OpenAI’s recent engagements and partnerships with other leading Indian institutions in crucial sectors such as engineering, medicine, and design. Further solidifying its commitment, OpenAI intends to establish new offices in Mumbai and Bengaluru later this year, augmenting its existing presence in New Delhi. This geographical expansion is strategically planned to bolster enterprise partnerships, foster developer engagement, and facilitate crucial local regulatory coordination as the company expands its operational footprint across India.

The announcement of this significant partnership coincides with India’s AI Impact Summit held in New Delhi, a prominent event attracting global AI leaders, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai. The summit also serves as a platform for Indian startups and established enterprises to showcase groundbreaking AI applications across diverse sectors such as finance, healthcare, and education. OpenAI has already been actively expanding its footprint in India through a series of partnerships with companies including Pine Labs, JioHotstar, Eternal, Cars24, HCLTech, PhonePe, CRED, and MakeMyTrip. These collaborations are aimed at embedding OpenAI’s models across consumer platforms, enterprise systems, and digital payments infrastructure within one of the world’s largest internet markets. Collectively, the substantial data center build-out, extensive enterprise deployments, and the expanding network of partners signify OpenAI’s most comprehensive and robust push to date to firmly anchor advanced AI infrastructure and applications within India.