NTT DATA, a global information technology services and consulting company, has committed $1.5 billion over the next three years to expand its data center infrastructure and capacity in India. This investment is specifically targeted at building out AI-ready data centers to meet the accelerating demand for sovereign artificial intelligence (AI) models, driven by geopolitical shifts and national concerns over data control and innovation.Organisations implementing AI previously focused on speed, scale, and model performance, operating within a system of unrestricted data movement and globally managed infrastructure. However, this model is now shifting as demand for AI sovereignty grows, necessitating complex infrastructure solutions that integrate geopolitical and regulatory factors.
India’s Sovereign AI Drivers
Roli Agrawal, chief of CEO office, AI strategy and sales transformation at NTT DATA, noted that the demand for sovereign AI in India is shaped by four converging forces. These include the need for data residency and regulatory compliance, the requirement to operate at India’s scale, the need for cost-effective solutions, and the necessity to serve India’s linguistic and cultural diversity, which global models do not natively capture.To address these needs, NTT DATA is expanding its AI-ready data center footprint in India, providing local compute capacity, secure data residency, high-performance connectivity, and sovereign AI infrastructure. This will enable enterprises and public sector organisations to deploy AI while adhering to local governance and compliance requirements.
Hybrid Sovereignty Emerges
Agrawal also explained the concept of ‘hybrid sovereignty’, particularly relevant for economies in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. This approach focuses on maintaining strategic control over data, compute, and sensitive AI workloads while continuing to leverage the global innovation ecosystem. She clarified that resilience does not mean building every layer domestically, which is unrealistic for most APAC economies, but rather about retaining control without isolation.A report by MarketsandMarkets Research valued the global sovereign AI market at approximately $40 billion in 2025, projecting it to reach $148.0 billion by 2032. APAC is identified as the fastest-growing region, with China and India as key drivers. More than 60 countries have published national AI strategies emphasising technological sovereignty. NTT DATA’s Global AI Report indicated that 94 per cent of APAC organisations consider private and sovereign AI important, although only 30 per cent are prioritising it in near-term execution plans.