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India may not have pure-play artificial intelligence (AI) companies like those that dominate US markets, but investors are finding different ways to bet on the technology boom. A clutch of companies supplying the power, data centres, equipment and components needed to build AI infrastructure has delivered outsized returns this year, even as the benchmark index has struggled. In a 17 September note to investors, Goldman Sachs’s research division listed 42 ‘AI enablers’—companies in power infrastructure, data centre hardware, semiconductors and other parts of the supply chain—that recorded an average 60% rise in stock prices since 1 January, compared to a 12% decline in Nifty 50. These include Adani Green Energy, Tata Power, Cummins India, Kirloskar Oil Engines, CG Power, Kaynes Technology and Syrma SGS, among others, which the US investment bank identifies as companies benefiting from the AI buildout across sectors. The list of data centre and AI operators and leaders includes, according to Goldman Sachs, some of India's largest conglomerates such as Larsen & Toubro, Reliance Industries, Adani Enterprises and Bharti Airtel. “Beneath the surface of a laggard benchmark, a distinct and rapidly compounding pocket of AI-infrastructure beneficiaries, predominantly mid, small and micro cap, are delivering some of the strongest equity returns in India," the note by Goldman Sachs analysts Amorita Goel, Sunil Koul, Timothy Moe, Alvin So, John Kwon and Terry Chan read. "While the Nifty is down 12% in 2026, the ‘AI Enablers’ cohort of Indian AI infrastructure with a combined market cap of $670 billion, is up ~60% over the same period. This divergence challenges the prevailing view that India offers limited exposure to the global AI theme." These AI infrastructure companies, representing 2% of India's 1,800 listed companies, today account for about 13% of India's $5-trillion cumulative market capitalization—showcasing their impact on the country’s equity market. The surge in India's AI-facing stocks reflects growing demand for the infrastructure needed to support the technology. Data centres are at the heart of this buildout, with India attracting more than $250 billion in investments over the past 12 months from companies including Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Tata, Adani and Reliance. That investment is creating demand across the AI supply chain - from electricity and transmission equipment to generators, cooling systems, servers and semiconductor infrastructure. And as AI adoption gathers pace, demand for this infrastructure is set to grow. “Setting up one gigawatt of data-centre capacity requires roughly ₹70,000 crore of investment. About 60% of that goes into hardware such as GPUs, storage and memory, where much of the spending currently goes to suppliers outside India. The remaining 40% is where Indian companies have a significant opportunity, across power, electrical equipment and other infrastructure needed to build data centres. With India still at an early stage of the buildout, the opportunity for these suppliers is substantial, " said Amit Chandra, vice-president of research at brokerage firm HDFC Securities. "We are still scratching the surface. It is not as if data-centre construction has reached its peak; the buildout has only started. AI is not a flash-in-the-pan story that will disappear in six months. It is going to be there for much longer,” Chandra added. Limited AI exposure Goldman Sachs estimates that companies exposed to AI account for just 16% of the MSCI India Index’s market capitalization, suggesting that India’s broader equity market still has relatively limited exposure to the AI boom. In contrast, since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, 42 companies linked to generative AI have accounted for roughly 65-75% of the US benchmark S&P 500’s returns, earnings growth and increase in capital spending, according to global financial services firm JP Morgan. “India has become the default 'anti-AI' trade, and the index-level data backs the skepticism. Indian equities rank among the weakest performing major markets globally since 2025, in large part a consequence of being the least correlated to the AI theme globally. MSCI India’s AI-exposed market cap sits at just 16%, dwarfed by 70-80% in Korea and Taiwan, and 30-50% in China and Japan,” the Goldman Sachs note said. That, however, does not mean India is sitting out the AI infrastructure boom. On 11 September, Mint reported how the data centre boom is leading to a spurt in growth for top power generator manufacturers, with revenue opportunities of over ₹4,000 crore. India aims to more than triple its operating data centre capacity to 5.65 gigawatt (GW) by 2030, per an 8 September Cushman & Wakefield report. Broad-based growth This AI-led growth in India is fairly broad-based. Stocks across all three major segments—power, data centres and semiconductors—rose between 40% and 80% in 2026. All nine sub-segments identified by Goldman Sachs outperformed the broader Indian market, while six gained more than 20%, the report said. Amit Anwani, lead analyst at brokerage PL Capital, said that the current growth is “a result of the orders they are getting. All of their orders have gone up.” “There is broad growth over the last two-three years because of installations happening in India, and simultaneously, there are opportunities in international markets that domestic companies are eyeing," he said. Many companies are now talking about data centres contributing at least 10-15% of revenue. “On an absolute basis, data-centre-related revenue has also grown more than 20-25% over the past two-three years, and their forecast for the next three years is also very strong," Anwani added.
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