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As AI Data Centers Boom, India's Hidden Winners Emerge in Power and Cooling Supply

Indian industrial companies are experiencing a surge in demand for data center components as global hyperscalers invest heavily in AI infrastructure, with smaller firms making transformers, cooling systems, and cables seeing substantial gains. While much of the attention on India's AI boom has focused on software and services, a quieter but equally significant trend is unfolding in the manufacturing sector, where companies supplying the physical backbone of data centers are capturing enormous value.

The global data center infrastructure market itself is expanding rapidly. The market was valued at USD 230.5 billion in 2025 and is projected to reach USD 520.8 billion by 2033, growing at a compound annual rate of 10.8%. This expansion is being driven by the rapid scaling of cloud computing, artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads, and the growing demand for high-performance computing infrastructure across enterprises and governments worldwide.

Which Indian Companies Are Winning the Data Center Supply Race?

Several Indian manufacturers have emerged as major beneficiaries of this infrastructure boom. Sterlite Technologies Ltd., an optical-fiber maker owned by the Vedanta Group, has surged 500% in value this year after securing a USD 1.1 billion multi-year contract from a US-based hyperscaler. Its competitor, HFCL Ltd., has jumped 176%, while MTAR Technologies Ltd., which specializes in precision cooling and power components, has more than trebled in value.

These gains reflect a fundamental shift in how global AI infrastructure is being built. As hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, and Google expand their data center footprints to support AI workloads, they require massive quantities of specialized components. Indian manufacturers have positioned themselves as critical suppliers in this global supply chain, offering cost-effective production capabilities without sacrificing quality or reliability.

What Components Are Driving the Biggest Demand?

The data center infrastructure market is segmented across several critical component categories. Understanding which segments are growing fastest reveals where the real opportunity lies:

  • Hardware Dominance: Servers, storage systems, and networking equipment accounted for 56.7% of total market revenue in 2025, driven by continuous demand for computing power and AI-ready infrastructure.
  • Power Infrastructure: Transformers and power management systems are essential for delivering reliable electricity to massive data center facilities, making this a critical growth area for suppliers like MTAR Technologies.
  • Cooling Solutions: Precision cooling and thermal management systems are increasingly vital as data centers consume enormous amounts of electricity and generate significant heat, creating demand for advanced cooling technologies.
  • Optical Fiber and Connectivity: High-speed data transmission between servers and across data center networks requires specialized optical fiber cables, the specialty of companies like Sterlite Technologies.

The software segment is emerging as the fastest-growing component category, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 13.6%, driven by increasing adoption of virtualization, automation, and cloud orchestration technologies. However, the hardware and infrastructure components that Indian manufacturers supply remain the foundation upon which all software solutions depend.

How to Understand the Global Data Center Infrastructure Opportunity

  • Market Geography: North America dominated the data center infrastructure market with approximately 39.5% market share in 2025, supported by strong hyperscaler presence and advanced cloud ecosystems, while Asia-Pacific is expected to be the fastest-growing region with a projected 12.8% compound annual growth rate.
  • Investment Drivers: The expansion is fueled by rapid digitalization, increasing internet penetration, expanding cloud adoption, and rising investments in smart cities and data localization policies across countries such as China, India, Singapore, and Indonesia.
  • End-Use Industries: Demand for data center infrastructure spans IT and telecommunications, banking and financial services, healthcare, retail, government, energy, and other sectors, each with unique requirements for computing power and data storage.
  • Hyperscale Shift: A major trend is the rapid shift toward hyperscale data centers to support cloud and AI workloads, with companies like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft investing heavily in AI-ready infrastructure.

The convergence of these factors has created a unique opportunity for Indian manufacturers. Foreign investors are increasingly taking stakes in these companies, recognizing that they occupy a critical position in the global AI infrastructure supply chain. As hyperscalers continue to build out massive data center capacity to support AI training and inference workloads, the demand for transformers, cooling systems, cables, and other components will only intensify.

What makes this trend particularly significant is that it represents a shift in how global technology infrastructure is being built. Rather than concentrating all manufacturing in a single region, hyperscalers are diversifying their supply chains and tapping into manufacturing capabilities across multiple countries. India's combination of technical expertise, cost efficiency, and manufacturing scale has made it an attractive source for these critical components.

The USD 48 billion in market value added to Indian industrial companies this year is not a temporary spike but rather the beginning of a longer-term structural shift in global data center supply chains. As AI infrastructure spending continues to accelerate worldwide, Indian manufacturers are positioned to capture an increasingly significant share of the global opportunity, making them some of the most important but least visible winners in the AI boom.