Adani Says India Must Own AI Stack to Secure Future Power
The billionaire industrialist says AI is now strategic infrastructure, with energy and compute emerging as the new foundations of national power.
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Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani urged India to build and own its artificial intelligence infrastructure, saying national control over energy, compute and data systems will define geopolitical power in the coming decades.
Speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit 2026 in New Delhi this week, Adani said the assumptions that shaped decades of globalization were breaking down as supply chains, energy systems and digital infrastructure become instruments of national power.
“The world that is emerging is not flat. It is fractured and contested,” Adani said. “Semiconductors have become instruments of statecraft. Data is being treated as a national resource. Clouds are being weaponized. And Artificial Intelligence is being built behind the protective walls of data centers.”
Adani said energy security and digital security are now the “twin pillars of national power,” adding that countries that control both energy and compute will shape the century ahead.
“The country that controls its energy will power its industrial future. The country that controls its compute will power its intelligence future. And the country that controls both will shape the century ahead,” he said.
He argued that India should treat AI not just as software, but as strategic infrastructure spanning energy, data centers, chips, networks, compute, talent and governance.
“India must not rent the infrastructure of its intelligence future. India must build it, power it and own it on its own soil,” Adani said.
He rejected concerns that AI would mainly destroy jobs, saying India should use the technology to expand productivity, create employment and give small businesses, farmers and workers tools to compete globally.
“India must build AI not as a force that removes opportunity, but as one that expands productivity, creates jobs, empowers entrepreneurs and gives Indians the tools to compete globally,” he said.
Drawing a parallel with India’s digital payments system, Adani said the Unified Payments Interface had made millions of people digitally visible and financially connected, helping enable new businesses and services. “AI will do the same but at a far greater scale,” he said.
He said India’s rising electricity demand, rapid urbanization and expanding digital economy give it a large built-in market for domestic AI and energy infrastructure. India has crossed 500 GW of installed power capacity and is projected to need far greater energy and data center capacity as AI adoption expands, Adani said.
Adani said the next phase of sovereignty will be defined by whether India can power, compute and govern its own intelligence systems. “AI is not just software. AI is infrastructure. AI is energy. AI is cooling. AI is chips. AI is networks. AI is data. AI is talent. AI is governance,” he said.
