HCLTech: Net Profit Up 20%; Invests INR 3,500 Crore In Data Center

HCL Technologies posted a 20 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit for the June quarter at INR 4,624 crore. As part of its AI-led transformation, the company will invest up to INR 3,500 crore to establish AI data centers with the potential to scale to 50MW of capacity.

Its consolidated net profit for the first quarter of the previous fiscal was INR 3,843 crore. “We recorded our highest ever Q1 net-new bookings of $2.4 billion and our advanced AI business grew 10.6 per cent QoQ and 62.1 per cent YoY in constant currency terms. Combined with the operational efficiencies visible in margin expansion, this momentum gives us the confidence we’re positioned to keep outpacing the market over the medium term,” sais C Vijayakumar, CEO & MD, HCLTech.

The proposed data center investment shall be made through the company’s new subsidiary and step-down subsidiaries that will be set-up for this business.

The AI data center investment is complemented by HCLTech’s existing capabilities across AI data center design,DevOps and AI cloud operations as well as our software portfolio, enabling a truly integrated end-to-end play.

“The convergence of AI-led demand, supply constraints and push for digital sovereignty presents a compelling opportunity for us to emerge as a full-stack AI technology solutions provider. Our entry into the AI data center space positions us to capture the full value of this opportunity, as the industry transitions from physical infrastructure to higher-value, AI-ready solutions. Our managed services and outcome-based services to our global clients would also benefit significantly from this investment,” he said.

India is among the fastest growing technology markets globally and a growth market for HCLTech. The country’s data center ecosystem is on a rapid growth trajectory, driven by strong demand from a vibrant digital economy, data localization and critical infrastructure needs to support GPU deployments for AI training and inference workloads. Data center capacity is expected to grow to 5-7GW by 2030 from the current 1.8 GW, with a significant part of that growth in AI data centers.

The revenue from operations was reported at INR 34,579 crore for the quarter under review, up 14 percent from INR 30,349 reported in the same quarter of the previous fiscal. Operating margins stood at 16.9 percent.