The Odisha government signed two Memorandums of Understanding with HCLTech and Sarvam AI to establish the state’s first AI data centre at the upcoming Odisha Sovereign AI Park in Bhubaneswar. The AI data centre project involves a total planned capital outlay of ₹14,257 crore, including financial assistance from the state government. Alongside the data centre, HCLTech will also set up a Global Technology Centre in the state, creating more than 5,000 direct jobs for skilled youth.
What Is the Odisha Sovereign AI Park?
The Odisha Sovereign AI Park is a dedicated technology hub being developed by the Odisha government in Bhubaneswar, designed to host high-performance computing infrastructure entirely on Indian soil. The term “sovereign” here refers to the principle that the data, computing power, and AI models housed in the park will remain under Indian control, without dependence on foreign infrastructure.
The park was first announced in February 2026 when the Odisha government signed an initial MoU with Sarvam AI to build a 50 MW AI-optimised facility. At that time, Sarvam AI committed to deploying about 25,000 NVIDIA GPUs at the facility. The vision was to create a “compute backbone” for India, where the park would not only serve Odisha’s own AI needs but also provide compute capacity to other states and national platforms as part of a nationwide compute grid.
The park marks Odisha’s strategic shift from a mineral-rich industrial economy to a knowledge-based digital economy. Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi described this as a transition from a “mine-driven economy” to a “mind-driven economy.”
The Two MoUs: AI Data Centre and Global Development Centre
The MoU signing took place at Lok Seva Bhawan in Bhubaneswar on July 24, 2026, in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi, Electronics and IT Minister Dr Mukesh Mahaling, HCLTech Chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra, HCLTech CEO C Vijayakumar, and Sarvam AI Co-Founder Pratyush Kumar. The Electronics and IT Department of Odisha signed two separate agreements.
MoU 1: AI Data Centre
This MoU was signed jointly by the Odisha government, HCLTech, and Sarvam AI for establishing HCLTech’s first-ever AI data centre in India. The project has a planned capital outlay of ₹14,257 crore (approximately $1.48 billion). The facility will be housed within the Odisha Sovereign AI Park. HCLTech will bring its full-stack AI capabilities, while Sarvam AI will contribute its foundation models to offer sector-specific AI applications for both government and private enterprises.
MoU 2: Global Technology Centre
This was a separate agreement between the Odisha government and HCLTech alone. Under this, the company will set up a 5,000-seat Global Technology Centre in Bhubaneswar, with an investment of ₹730 crore. The centre is expected to begin operations by 2028 and will create direct employment for more than 5,000 highly educated and skilled youth of Odisha. This facility will act as a delivery hub for HCLTech’s global client base.
Who Are the Key Players?
HCLTech
HCLTech (Hindustan Computers Limited Technologies) is a global IT services and technology company headquartered in Noida, Uttar Pradesh. Founded in 1976 as HCL, the company is one of India’s original IT pioneers. It is led by Chairperson Roshni Nadar Malhotra (daughter of founder Shiv Nadar) and CEO & MD C Vijayakumar.
HCLTech employs more than 223,000 people across 60 countries and reported consolidated revenues of $14.8 billion for the twelve months ending June 2026. The company provides services across AI, digital, engineering, cloud, and software, serving clients in financial services, manufacturing, healthcare, telecom, and public services.
This AI data centre in Odisha is part of HCLTech’s broader push into the full-stack AI market. On July 13, 2026, the company had announced its entry into the AI data centre business with a strategic investment of up to ₹3,500 crore to establish AI data centres that could scale to 50 MW of capacity. The Odisha project is the first concrete execution of that announcement.
Sarvam AI
Sarvam AI is an Indian artificial intelligence company headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka, founded in August 2023 by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, both previously associated with AI4Bharat at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.
The company raised about $41 million in seed and Series A funding from investors including Lightspeed Venture Partners, Peak XV Partners, and Khosla Ventures. In April 2025, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) selected Sarvam AI to develop an indigenous foundational model under the IndiaAI Mission.
Sarvam AI’s products include large language models such as Sarvam-30B (30 billion parameters) and Sarvam-105B (105 billion parameters, using a mixture-of-experts architecture), which were open-sourced in February 2026. The company also develops speech-to-text, text-to-speech, and vision-language models supporting multiple Indian languages. Its AI wearable device, Sarvam Kaze, was launched in 2026 and supports more than 10 Indian languages.
What Is Sovereign AI and Why Does It Matter?
Sovereign AI refers to a nation’s capacity to independently develop, deploy, and govern artificial intelligence using its own infrastructure, data, models, and talent, without relying on foreign technology providers. It covers control over the entire “intelligence supply chain”, including hardware, data pipelines, computing power, and trained models.
For India, sovereign AI has become a strategic priority. As the country rapidly digitises its public services, banking, healthcare, and governance systems, the data generated is both vast and sensitive. Relying on foreign AI infrastructure for processing this data raises concerns about data security, privacy, and strategic autonomy.
India’s approach to sovereign AI is being led through initiatives such as the IndiaAI Mission, under which the government is building common compute infrastructure, funding indigenous foundational models, and promoting AI applications in key sectors. The IndiaAI Mission was launched with a budget outlay to support the full AI ecosystem, from GPU access to startup funding.
Sarvam AI’s partnerships with Odisha and Tamil Nadu are early components of what is envisioned as a national compute grid. The Odisha Sovereign AI Park is expected to offer compute capacity not just within the state but to other states and national platforms, creating a shared, sovereign AI backbone for the country.
Significance for Odisha
The two MoUs represent a major leap in Odisha’s ambition to become a technology hub. Historically known for its mineral wealth, steel plants, and heavy industries, Odisha has been aggressively pursuing investments in the IT and electronics sector under the leadership of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi.
In the last two years, the state has attracted investment proposals worth over ₹20 lakh crore, of which projects worth over ₹10 lakh crore have been approved and projects worth over ₹3 lakh crore have already been implemented on the ground. The HCLTech and Sarvam AI deals add a significant digital infrastructure component to this portfolio.
The AI data centre and the Global Technology Centre together are expected to directly employ over 5,000 highly skilled professionals, with additional thousands of indirect jobs in support services, logistics, and the local economy. Moreover, with Sarvam AI’s focus on Indian languages, including Odia, the park will enable AI-powered public services in local languages across agriculture, health, education, and defence sectors within the state.
Key Takeaways
- The Odisha government signed MoUs with HCLTech and Sarvam AI on July 24, 2026 to set up the state’s first AI data centre in Bhubaneswar.
- The AI data centre will be located at the Odisha Sovereign AI Park with a capital outlay of ₹14,257 crore.
- HCLTech also signed a separate MoU to set up a 5,000-seat Global Technology Centre in Bhubaneswar with an investment of ₹730 crore.
- Sarvam AI, founded in 2023 and headquartered in Bengaluru, is building India’s full-stack sovereign AI platform under the IndiaAI Mission.
- HCLTech, established in 1976, is one of India’s largest IT services companies with revenues of $14.8 billion and over 223,000 employees globally.
- The Odisha Sovereign AI Park, first announced in February 2026, is envisioned as a national compute grid component, offering AI infrastructure to multiple states.
