OpenAI and Tata Forge Strategic Partnership to Build AI Data Centers in India

In a significant move underscoring India’s rising importance in the global artificial intelligence ecosystem, OpenAI has announced a strategic partnership with India’s Tata Group and its IT services arm, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), to build out AI data center infrastructure in the country. The agreement, unveiled on Feb. 19, 2026, at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, marks a major step in OpenAI’s push to establish a global network of AI-ready facilities under its expansive Stargate initiative.

Under the deal, TCS will develop an initial 100 megawatts (MW) of AI-ready data center capacity that can eventually scale up to 1 gigawatt (GW) — a magnitude that would put the facilities among some of the largest such deployments in the world. OpenAI will be the first committed customer for TCS’s data center business, HyperVault, which was launched with the intent of delivering large-scale, secure, and reliable infrastructure tailored for next-generation AI workloads.

Building local AI infrastructure is critical for ensuring data residency, compliance, and performance — especially for enterprise and government workloads. With over 100 million weekly ChatGPT users in India, OpenAI has emphasized that on-shore data centers can reduce latency, meet security and regulatory needs, and drive adoption among enterprise customers and public sector partners alike.

A Comprehensive Collaboration Beyond Infrastructure

The partnership between OpenAI and Tata is broader than just data center buildout. Alongside infrastructure development, the companies are collaborating to accelerate AI adoption across business operations, both domestically and globally. One notable component is the planned deployment of ChatGPT Enterprise across Tata Group companies. Over the next several years, the enterprise version of ChatGPT is expected to be rolled out to hundreds of thousands of Tata employees, making this among the largest enterprise AI deployments in the world.

TCS will also leverage other OpenAI technologies, such as Codex, to enhance software engineering productivity and to foster AI-native development practices across its engineering teams. This move is intended to not only boost internal innovation but also to help TCS’s global customers integrate advanced AI solutions into their products and services.

Another key focus of the collaboration is to develop industry-specific AI solutions that combine OpenAI’s capabilities in agentic AI — systems that can take autonomous actions to solve complex tasks — with TCS’s deep domain expertise across sectors such as finance, healthcare, manufacturing, and energy. These joint solutions aim to give enterprises worldwide more powerful tools to automate workflows, analyze data at scale, and enhance productivity.

Investing in Talent and Local AI Ecosystem

Beyond enterprise deployment and infrastructure, OpenAI and Tata are also committing to workforce development and education. OpenAI plans to expand its OpenAI Certifications program in India, with TCS serving as the first participating organization outside of the United States. These certifications are aimed at equipping professionals with practical skills for building and deploying AI solutions across industries.

In addition, OpenAI has announced partnerships with leading Indian universities — including the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and others — to provide AI education resources and prepare a new generation of AI-ready professionals. Tens of thousands of ChatGPT Edu licenses will be made available to students through these collaborations, helping bridge skills gaps and expand access to AI learning.

Strategic Significance in a Competitive Landscape

The alliance between OpenAI and Tata comes at a time when India is rapidly emerging as a key market and strategic hub for AI infrastructure. The country has seen massive investments and commitments from global tech giants such as Google, Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta, as well as from domestic conglomerates like the Adani Group, all aiming to bolster AI and data center capabilities locally. India is also positioning itself as a favored destination for AI development, supported by proactive government policies, tax incentives for cloud services, and growing demand from enterprise customers.

In stepping up to build large-scale AI infrastructure with a local partner, OpenAI is joining a broader global shift toward decentralized compute networks that serve diverse geographic and regulatory environments. For India, hosting substantial AI hardware capacity means not only reduced reliance on foreign cloud regions but also improved digital sovereignty — a crucial factor for government and enterprise adoption.

Leadership Perspectives

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman framed the collaboration as part of “OpenAI for India,” an initiative to unlock AI’s economic and societal benefits across the country. Altman emphasized India’s strong talent pool, vibrant AI community, and supportive environment as key reasons for the push into local infrastructure and ecosystem building. Meanwhile, N. Chandrasekaran, Chairman of Tata Sons, described the partnership as a milestone in India’s ambition to become a global leader in AI, highlighting the potential for the alliance to transform industries and empower youth in the AI age.

Looking Ahead

Rolling out 100 MW of AI data center capacity is just the beginning. As demand for AI computing power continues to surge globally, the partnership sets the stage for India to play a central role in the next era of digital infrastructure development. Over time, scaling up to 1 GW of capacity could position the Tata-OpenAI facilities as a cornerstone of AI compute in Asia, driving innovation for enterprises and governments alike.