HCLTech Sees Sovereign AI Push With Sarvam Bet

HCLTech’s investment in Sarvam AI is aimed at strengthening its play in sovereign AI and specialized government AI solutions, Mint reported citing a top company executive.

The Noida-based IT services company is investing about $150 million in Sarvam, a Bengaluru-based AI startup that builds Indian-language models and full-stack sovereign AI systems.

Chief Executive Officer C. Vijayakumar told Mint the investment gives HCLTech a new growth vector as demand rises for AI systems that can meet local language, privacy, ownership and deployment requirements.

He said building similar Indian-language AI capability from scratch would take at least two to three years even with sufficient capital, given the research talent and model-development work involved.

“Sarvam has top researchers from leading organizations. Replicating that quickly is very challenging,” he said.

HCLTech is acquiring a 10.5% stake in Sarvam for ₹1,427 crore, making it the lead strategic investor in the startup’s Series B round. Sarvam has raised $234 million in the first close of a planned $300 million round, valuing the company at $1.5 billion.

The deal marks one of the clearest moves yet by an Indian IT services company to invest directly in a domestic AI model developer, rather than relying only on partnerships with global AI companies.

The strategy also contrasts with Tata Consultancy Services’ move to build a sovereign cloud business, pointing to different approaches among Indian IT majors as they seek a larger role in enterprise and government AI.

HCLTech reported FY26 revenue of $14.66 billion, up 6% from a year earlier. The company is betting that Sarvam will add to its AI capabilities and help it pursue government and regulated-sector contracts globally.