Adani and Jabil are teaming up to make AI hardware in India.
The Adani Group, India’s infrastructure-and-energy conglomerate, and Jabil, the US contract manufacturer, said on Monday they intend to form a strategic alliance to build a vertically integrated AI and data-centre hardware platform in the country. They put no number on it, and the agreement is not yet signed.
What they want to make is the physical guts of an AI data centre. The plan is multi-gigawatt capacity for high-density, liquid-cooled AI racks, servers, storage and networking, plus the power and cooling gear that surrounds them: distribution and coolant units, transformers, switchgear and thermal systems.
The pitch is a single, end-to-end source, from design to deployment. Jabil brings 60 years of manufacturing and, after recent acquisitions, power and thermal expertise; Adani brings infrastructure, green energy, logistics and its own fast-growing data-centre operations.
Why Adani and Jabil are betting on India #
The demand case is a sovereignty case. India’s data-centre capacity is forecast to reach 5 to 8 gigawatts by 2030, hyperscalers have lined up more than $50bn in spending, and the country’s data-protection law and data-localisation push are nudging buyers toward hardware made at home.
A new tax holiday for data centres, running to 2047, sweetens the export maths further.
For Adani, the alliance slots into a vast existing bet: a $100bn commitment to develop 5 gigawatts of green-powered, AI-ready data centres by 2035. Making the racks and power gear domestically, rather than importing them, lets it capture more of that build-out and, in theory, sell the surplus abroad. Gautam Adani framed it in epochal terms, calling AI an “Intelligence Revolution” and arguing India must be “a creator, builder, and exporter of intelligence,” not just a consumer.
Make in India, for AI #
The deal is one piece of a much larger surge. India has now attracted more than $200bn in AI-infrastructure commitments, led by a $110bn pledge from Reliance, with tens of billions more from Google, Microsoft and Amazon; only last week Meta signed its first Indian data-centre deal, with Reliance.
The country is trying to convert its position as a huge AI consumer into a place that builds the kit, too, the same sovereignty instinct now driving its push for homegrown models.
The caution is that this is, so far, a press release. There is no disclosed investment, no binding contract, and the companies say they are still negotiating the “definitive operational frameworks.” Their own filing warns the alliance may never be finalised, and the headline-grabbing “$3 trillion market” is their framing of the opportunity, not a commitment.
The ambition is real and well-timed; whether it becomes gigawatts of Indian-made AI racks, or stays a signing-day vision, depends on what gets funded and signed next.
Get the TNW newsletter #
Get the most important tech news in your inbox each week.