Tata Communications to invest $450 million in Indian AI fiber network

Tata Communications has announced plans to invest approximately $450 million to deploy 10,000 kilometers of new long-distance fiber optic cables across India. The project aims to connect major artificial intelligence and data center hubs to support the growing demands of cloud providers, AI developers, and large enterprises.

The expansion will be executed in three phases. The initial phase will establish a corridor linking Mumbai, Pune, Hyderabad, and Chennai. Subsequent phases are intended to reach data center clusters on India’s east coast and in western regions, including Visakhapatnam, Bhubaneswar, Jamnagar, and GIFT City in Gujarat.

The new infrastructure is expected to add roughly 6 petabits per second of capacity to the company’s existing domestic network, which currently carries 1.25 petabits per second. The full additional capacity is projected to be available between the 2029 and 2036 financial years. Tata Communications intends to fund the project through its operating cash flow, noting that anchor customers have already committed to using the network.