# HFCL rallies on data-centre AI boom > Source: > Published: 2026-06-17 04:53:32.011139+00:00 # HFCL rallies on data-centre AI boom Per ETMarkets, **HFCL** shares have rallied nearly **200%** in six months as investors price India's data-centre expansion and AI capex, according to reporting by Economic Times and Business Standard. **HFCL** reported a FY26 consolidated revenue of **Rs 4,949 crore**, EBITDA of around **Rs 827 crore**, and profit after tax of approximately **Rs 329 crore**, and its March quarter revenue was **Rs 1,824 crore** with EBITDA of **Rs 315 crore**, per ETMarkets. The company also secured a major international order worth about **Rs 10,159 crore**, ETMarkets reports. Industry data cited by Nomura shows India's data-centre IT load grew from ~** 350 MW** in 2019 to **1.5-1.6 GW** in 2025, a **~29%** CAGR, Bloomberg and ETMarkets report. Industry coverage frames HFCL as one of several "AI capex" beneficiaries alongside peers such as Sterlite Technologies and MTAR Technologies. ### What happened Per ETMarkets (Economic Times), **HFCL Ltd.** shares have risen nearly **200%** over the past six months as markets price in demand from data-centre expansion and AI-related capex. ETMarkets reports **HFCL**'s FY26 consolidated revenue nearly doubled year-on-year to **Rs 4,949 crore**, with **EBITDA around Rs 827 crore** and profit after tax about **Rs 329 crore**. The March quarter figures cited by ETMarkets show revenue of **Rs 1,824 crore**, EBITDA of **Rs 315 crore**, and profit after tax of **Rs 184 crore** versus a loss the prior year. ETMarkets also reports a major international contract for optical fibre cables worth approximately **Rs 10,159 crore**, described as one of the company's largest orders. ### Industry context Bloomberg and Business Standard place HFCL's rally in a broader market move where smaller industrial suppliers to data centres have outperformed the broader index. Business Standard reports **Sterlite Technologies** has gained over **530%** year-to-date after a reported **$1.1 billion** hyperscaler contract, while Business Standard and Bloomberg list **HFCL** (about **191%** gain in one report) and **MTAR Technologies** (more than **200%**) among the top performers. An equal-weighted Bloomberg index of 28 Indian data-centre suppliers added roughly **$47 billion** in market value this year, per Business Standard and Bloomberg. ### Technical details / Editorial analysis Industry-pattern observations: rapid AI-driven compute growth increases demand for optical-fibre capacity, power distribution, and cooling. Nomura data cited in ETMarkets shows India's data-centre IT load rising from around **350 MW** in 2019 to approximately **1.5-1.6 GW** in 2025, a **~29%** CAGR compared with about **20%** globally. Companies supplying fiber, cabling, and related infrastructure typically see multi-year order pipelines when hyperscalers and cloud providers accelerate campus and region builds; public reporting on large multi-year contracts supports that dynamic. ### Context and significance Editorial analysis: for practitioners, the HFCL case illustrates how AI infrastructure demand propagates into industrial supply chains outside core semiconductor and model-layer firms. The reported FY26 profit turnaround and the cited **Rs 10,159 crore** contract are concrete, high-impact milestones that investors are pricing, according to ETMarkets. Bloomberg and Business Standard coverage signals this is not an isolated move but part of a sector-wide "AI capex trade" across India's data-centre value chain. ### What to watch observers should track announced hyperscaler capex commitments in India, the timing and delivery schedules of large optical-fibre contracts, and subsequent quarterly order-book disclosures. Market reaction metrics to follow include peers' earnings cadence, export contract wins, and any broker/research updates (for example, Nomura commentary cited in ETMarkets). ## Scoring Rationale The story matters to practitioners because accelerated data-centre capex directly affects infrastructure suppliers and procurement pipelines. It is a market-moving corporate-earnings and contract story rather than a frontier-model or platform release, so its practitioner relevance is notable but not transformative. Practice interview problems based on real data 1,500+ SQL & Python problems across 15 industry datasets — the exact type of data you work with. [Try 250 free problems](/problems)