From Bengaluru To Bhubaneswar, States Enter High-Stakes AI Race
States are competing for data centres, cloud infrastructure, AI compute capacity and digital ecosystems.
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States are competing for data centres, cloud infrastructure, AI compute capacity and digital ecosystems.
Blackstone-backed AirTrunk plans a massive Rs 3 lakh crore investment in India by 2030 to boost digital infrastructure, including data centres and AI capacity. Prime Minister Modi welcomed the move, highlighting its potential to strengthen India's global position in cloud computing and AI, create jobs, and drive innovation-led growth.
Meta's top AI executive, Alexandr Wang, revealed the company's strategy to challenge rivals like OpenAI and Google by focusing on health-related AI capabilities. While acknowledging current models aren't top-tier, Wang highlighted Meta's commitment to advancing AI for health applications, aiming to integrate these features into popular platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
Google cofounders Larry Page and Sergey Brin each saw their fortunes drop by approximately $10 billion following Alphabet's announcement of an $80 billion stock sale. This massive fundraising aims to fuel the company's AI expansion amidst intensifying competition and projected significant capital expenditures. The market's reaction to the ambitious plan led to a sharp decline in Alphabet's share price.
The draft rules underline that AI systems used in court processes must โfunction solely in an assistive capacityโ and remain โstrictly subservient to human judgment and judicial authorityโ
As geopolitical headwinds make it tougher for equity investors to make money, Dalal Streetโs top voice Nilesh Shah, managing director of Kotak Mahindra Asset Management, told a gathering of HNI investors at the ET Alpha Wealth Summit on Thursday that there are four specific investment structures which deserve a place in most portfolios right now.Shahโs first recommendation was the Special Investment Fund, or SIF, a structure that marks a meaningful shift in what is available to Indian investors. Shah noted that the mutual fund industry has, until now, been a long-only business but the SIF changes that. These are long-short, absolute return-oriented funds, designed to generate returns regardless of market direction rather than simply riding the equity tide.The second vehicle Shah flagged is performing credit AIFs. His reasoning was grounded in a simple supply-demand observation that for corporate settlements today, capital is not available from banks, mutual funds, or insurance companies.As institutional lenders have stepped back, borrowers are plenty and lenders very few. Amid this imbalance, Shah said the need is real and returns are attractive. Performing credit AIFs, which lend into this gap, are positioned to benefit directly from the scarcity of competing capital.https://youtube.com/shorts/Xa4AcXFg8hA?feature=shareThe third idea was REITs, and here Shah introduced a timing element. Over the last three years, REITs have delivered index-level returns of around 13.5%. But with interest rates rising, he suggested that the next six to nine months may present an opportunity to enter at better prices. Rising rates typically compress REIT valuations in the near term, and Shah framed any such correction as a potential entry point rather than a risk to avoid. Beyond the return potential, he positioned REITs as a portfolio diversification tool as the asset class behaves differently from equities and fixed income, and that is still underrepresented in most Indian investor portfolios.The fourth recommendation addressed global diversification but came with an important caveat. Mutual fund industry limits for overseas investment are currently full, which means the conventional route for Indian investors to access global markets through domestic mutual funds is closed. Shah pointed to Gift City as the workaround. Structures domiciled there allow investment under the Liberalised Remittance Scheme, and in his view, these Gift City-based LRS products are the practical path for investors who want global exposure while the mutual fund window remains shut.Across all four โ the SIF, performing credit AIFs, REITs, and Gift City products โ Shah's underlying argument was the same: in a volatile period, the portfolio needs instruments that can generate positive returns through means other than a rising equity market.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views, and opinions given by experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
Alphabet has secured a massive $45 billion equity offering, with Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway leading with a $10 billion investment. This substantial capital infusion is earmarked for bolstering Google's AI compute infrastructure, a critical area identified by CEO Sundar Pichai. The company anticipates a total of $85 billion for this AI build-out, underscoring its strategic focus on artificial intelligence.
Google is planning a historic $80 billion equity capital markets transaction to fund its significant investments in artificial intelligence infrastructure. This massive fundraising effort includes a $40 billion at-the-market offering and a $10 billion private placement with Berkshire Hathaway, aiming to bolster its AI capabilities amidst fierce industry competition.
Uber has implemented monthly usage caps of $1,500 per AI coding tool for its employees due to exceeding its AI budget. This move aims to responsibly manage the rising costs associated with AI adoption and experimentation across the company. The company previously reported that AI agents contributed to 10% of its code.
Mumbai: With a market capitalisation of over $5 trillion, South Korea has become the sixth largest equity market in the world, replacing India which has a market cap of $4.8 trillion, according to the data from Bloomberg.Earlier, in the last week of May, Taiwan had jumped ahead of India after crossing $5 trillion in market cap.131473576The two Asian markets are in a bull phase, helped by record financial performance from semiconductor manufacturers amid booming demand from the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. South Korean equities have gained 88% in 2026 so far while Taiwan has expanded market cap by 58%. India's market cap, on the other hand, has fallen by over 8% since the beginning of the current calendar year, impacted by heavy selling from foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) amid geopolitical uncertainties in West Asia. They have sold equities worth $24 billion (โน2.2 lakh crore) in the first five months of 2026 compared with $18.9 billion (โน1.7 lakh crore) in the whole of 2025.Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, South Korea's two largest companies by market cap, have led the current rally in local equity markets with a year-to-date gain of 182% and 231% on bourses. The Asian semiconductor companies are benefitting from the rising AI capital expenditure since memory chips are a part of the building blocks of the technology.
The S&P 500 and the Dow closed modestly higher โon Tuesday as risk appetite driven by AI fervor was counterbalanced by tensions arising from U.S.-Iran talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the months-long war.Gains in most of the 11 major S&P sectors kept the S&P 500 and the Dow in the green, with the small-cap Russell 2000 outperforming its larger-cap peers. The Nasdaq โended the session essentially unchanged.Small-cap โ stocks have โ been some of the biggest beneficiaries of the ongoing enthusiasm surrounding artificial intelligence stocks, which provided some upside muscle. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index advanced on the day.The Software & Services Index, โbattered in recent months over worries of AI disruption, closed in negative territory.Strong results from Hewlett Packard Enterprise and a funding commitment from Alphabet reinforced confidence in the โAI buildout."The market is kind of muted at the surface level, but there is a lot going on under the hood, and that describes much of this year," said Mike Dickson, head of portfolio management at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina. "There's some massive dispersion in the whole AI infrastructure โecosystem.""Markets could be in for one of these heated, melt-up rallies where the momentum keeps โ winning," Dickson โadded. "I would not be surprised at all to be sitting here at the end of the summer a good bit โhigher."Tehran is studying a โU.S. proposal to bring the war to a halt, but has not been in contact with Washington โ for days, according to Iranian media, which also said Iran is taking a "stern" approach, given โwhat it views as a history of U.S. noncompliance and mutual distrust. Simultaneously, Israel is continuing its โstrikes on Lebanon, despite Tehran's warnings that the attacks are threatening to derail the fragile truce.The war has sent crude prices soaring, reviving worries over inflation and giving rise to an increasing likelihood that the U.S. Federal Reserve could hike interest rates by year-end. Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said on Tuesday that such a hike could become necessary if already-elevated inflation pressures continue to mount. On the economic front, a report from the Labor Department showed an unexpected spike in job openings, driven by the volatile professional and business services sector. Otherwise, hiring, firing and quits all decreased, suggesting a slowdown โin labor market churn in the face of uncertainties related to strife in the Middle East and inflationary effects.Analysts look to the May employment report due on Friday, which is expected to show the U.S. economy added 85,000 jobs last โmonth, a monthly deceleration โof 26.1%. The unemployment rate is forecast โ to stand pat at 4.3%.According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 10.07 points, or 0.13%, to end at 7,610.03 points, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 8.78 points, or 0.03%, to 27,095.59. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 237.13 points, or 0.46%, to 51,316.01.Hewlett Packard Enterprise jumped after โthe AI server maker pulled forward its long-term financial targets by two years. In further evidence of AI buildout, Alphabet said it was looking to raise $80 billion in equity offerings, including an investment from Berkshire Hathaway, to fund a costly expansion of its AI infrastructure. Its shares lost ground on the day. Marvell Technology's shares surged after Nvidia Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang called the chipmaker the next "trillion-dollar company" at the Computex conference in Taipei. Nvidia invested $2 billion in Marvell in March.A drop in bitcoin hit cryptocurrency firms Coinbase and Strategy Inc.Broadcom is expected to report quarterly results on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday (local time) signed an executive order asking companies to provide artificial intelligence (AI) models to the federal government to assess their capabilities ahead of a full release.
Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday held separate meetings with senior leaders of Larsen & Toubro (L&T) and Bharti Enterprises to review ongoing projects and discuss future investments in the state.The Chief Minister said he met S.N. Subrahmanyan, Chairman and Managing Director of Larsen & Toubro, at his official residence and reviewed the progress of various projects being executed by the engineering and infrastructure major in Assam."We discussed the various projects that L&T is undertaking in Assam and the roadmap for their timely completion," Sarma said in a post on X.Later in the day, the Chief Minister also held discussions with Rajan Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman of Bharti Enterprises, at his official residence, focusing on the group's expansion plans in Assam, particularly in the telecommunications sector."We discussed the group's expansion plans in Assam, with a specific focus on covering dark areas so that more people can benefit from proper phone and internet connectivity," Sarma said.The meetings underline the Assam government's continued engagement with leading corporate groups to accelerate infrastructure development and improve digital connectivity across the state, especially in underserved regions.Sarma also congratulated Dr Ashok Lahiri on his recent appointment as Vice Chairman of NITI Aayog and expressed the state's commitment to strengthening its partnership with the national policy think tank.Sharing details of his meeting with Lahiri in the national capital, Sarma said the newly appointed Vice Chairman "brings with him extensive experience in public policy and finance", highlighting the expertise he is expected to bring to NITI Aayog's policymaking and reform agenda.The Chief Minister noted that the Assam government is keen to deepen its engagement with NITI Aayog in implementing reforms and development policies."The Assam government aims to deepen its partnership with NITI Aayog in implementing reforms and policies that will improve the ease of living of our people," Sarma said in a post on X after the meeting.The interaction comes as Assam continues to pursue governance reforms, infrastructure development and welfare initiatives with support from central institutions. Officials believe closer collaboration with NITI Aayog will help accelerate policy implementation and improve outcomes across key sectors.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab underscored how the educational landscape of the state saw a major transformation under its rule
The shares of Indian IT companies including Infosys, TCS and others continued to record sharp gains on Tuesday, pushing the Nifty IT over 3% higher even as the broader Nifty index slipped into the deep red.The Nifty IT index extended gains for the third consecutive session, jumping around 7% during the period to hit a high of 30,785 on Tuesday. Nifty crashed 3% during the same time to trade below 23,250.Infosys shares gained more than 4% to trade at Rs 1,257.90 apiece in the morning trading hours of Tuesday. The heavyweight IT stock has now gained nearly 9% in just three sessions. The shares of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) meanwhile jumped around 3.5%.Mphasis and LTI Mindtree shares jumped nearly 3% each, while HCL Technologies, Coforge, Tech Mahindra and Persistent Systems shares jumped around 2% each. Wipro shares were trading in the green with marginal gains.Whatโs driving the rally in IT stocks?The sharp surge in IT stocks comes after a significant decline earlier this year, following the launch of plug-ins for AI startup Anthropic's Claude Cowork agent, which could automate tasks across legal, sales, marketing, and data analysis. "We call it the โSaaSpocalypse,โ an apocalypse for software-as-a-service stocks," Bloomberg quoted Jeffrey Favuzza from the equity trading desk at Jefferies.While analysts continue to debate the future of IT companies following fresh AI advancements, investors were quick to analyse the cheap valuations, leading to some pockets of buying. Nuvama, in its note, had highlighted that the IT sector is setting up for a powerful comeback, not a collapse after the brutal AI-driven selloff.โWe see no existential threat from Gen-AI,โ the brokerage writes, arguing that enterprises will still need a โsystem integratorโ to customise plug-and-play AI and software tools for their highly complex, brownfield technology stacks and to take ownership when โthe system fails at 2 am.โThe latest round of buying also comes ahead of the Federal Reserveโs policy meeting next month, which would be the first under Chair Kevin Warsh. US President Donald Trump had selected Warsh partly on expectations that he would support lower borrowing costs to stimulate economic growth. However, rising inflation raised questions over the possibility of lowering rates."Indian IT firms are following suit of American companies like Anthropic and OpenAI by taking up contracts and tie-ups which are perceived as promising by investors," said Gaurav Sharma, head of Research, Globe Capital.Arbind Maheswari from BofA Securities told ET Now that the market globally is attracting flow towards only one story, at the front and centre of it is tech and AI. It is hard to pull away from that fact with a near-term vision. โThere are people who believe that the whole business model of Indian IT services is put to question by the AI trade. The other side is that IT services companies will evolve and adapt and they have enough cash flow, they have the resilience, and they have shown this in the past where there were threats that seemed existential for the IT services space. This time obviously it is much bigger and it could last longer but I am sure there is enough that these companies have in them both in terms of depth of management and business models that they can evolve to adapt to the new AI world,โ he added.Wipro to acquire additional stake in Aggne Global for $28.5 millionWipro announced that it will acquire an additional 20% stake in US-based insurtech company Aggne Global Inc through an all-cash transaction worth $28.5 million. The company said the transaction is expected to be completed by June 5.Earlier this year, the company acquired Mindsprint for $375 million as part of a broader $1 billion transaction with its parent, Olam Group. It also purchased select customer contracts from US-based Alpha Net Consulting LLC and its subsidiaries for $71 million.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
Shares of Anant Raj surged as much as 4.6% to Rs 563.25 in Tuesday's trade after the company announced a landmark partnership with the Government of Haryana to accelerate the state's digital infrastructure buildout.The real estate and infrastructure developer has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Haryana Enterprises Promotion Centre (HEPC), marking a significant step in its ambitions to expand its data centre and cloud services business.The agreement was formalized on June 1, 2026, during the launch of the "Make in Haryana Policy & Other Sectoral Policies" event, presided over by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.Rs 25,000 crore investment planUnder the MoU, Anant Raj intends to invest around Rs 25,000 crore in building data centres and cloud infrastructure across Haryana. The move highlights the company's increasing emphasis on digital infrastructure as demand continues to grow for artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and data storage solutions.The partnership framework involves several key government departments and agencies, including:Haryana Enterprises Promotion Centre (HEPC)Department of Information Technology, Electronics & CommunicationHaryana State Electronics Development CorporationCitizen Resources Information DepartmentDepartment of Industries & CommerceThe agreement is designed to support Anant Raj's expansion of its Digital Infrastructure Business, encompassing both data centre operations and cloud services. The Haryana government, through HEPC, has committed to providing facilitation support and ease-of-doing-business assistance to help fast-track the project.The company said the arrangement aims to foster long-term cooperation between the state government and Anant Raj, positioning Haryana as a major hub for next-generation digital infrastructure investments.Anant Raj clarified that the MoU does not involve any shareholding arrangement, special rights, equity issuance, or related-party transaction. The agreement is focused solely on enabling investment and operational expansion in the state.Share price performance and technical indicatorsOver the past three years, the stock has delivered strong returns, rallying nearly 254%. The company currently commands a market capitalization of approximately Rs 19,406 crore.From a technical perspective, the 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) stands at 61. An RSI reading below 30 typically indicates oversold conditions, while a reading above 70 suggests the stock may be overbought.The stock also exhibits strong bullish momentum, trading above all eight of its key Simple Moving Averages (SMAs), signaling a positive technical trend.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
Shares of Coforge rose more than 2% to their dayโs high of Rs 1,495 on the BSE on Tuesday after the company announced the launch of its "Nexa Agentic AI Platform", a business platform that aims to cater to the global insurance industry.According to the company, the platform is designed to help insurers derive greater value from their existing insurance platforms and speed up time-to-market without replacing core systems. Instead, it layers AI orchestration capabilities over incumbent platforms while operating within the guardrails of leading platform providers.Built on the Coforge One AI platform, Nexa Agentic AI Platform offers a marketplace of more than 30 insurance AI assets covering underwriting, claims, product development, customer service and platform modernisation. The company said the platform is modular and composable, allowing insurers to deploy specific capabilities or adopt the full suite through an Insurance-in-a-Box model.Coforge said the platform is purpose-built for the global insurance market across Property & Casualty, Life & Annuities, Specialty insurance, as well as managing general agents (MGAs) and intermediaries. It incorporates human-in-the-loop oversight, full auditability and measurable outcomes.The platform includes six flagship orchestrators spanning the insurance value chain. These include an AI-enabled Submission Centre, which the company said can increase underwriting capacity by more than 30% through automated data extraction, validation and prioritisation.Another offering, the Agentic State Rollout Factory, is designed to automate rates, forms and filings across jurisdictions, enabling more than 25% faster realisation of new revenue. The AI-enabled Product Rollout Factory aims to accelerate product launches by 30% while improving quality and responsiveness to regulatory changes.Coforge also introduced an Agentic AI Global Expansion capability to support market entry across geographies, a Core Platform Modernisation capability that it said can reduce total cost of ownership by more than 30%, and an Agentic Claims Triaging Centre that can enable more than 35% faster claims triaging and higher straight-through processing.Rajeev Batra, Executive Vice President and Global Practice Head of Insurance at Coforge, said the platform combines the company's AI engineering capabilities with its insurance domain expertise to help clients scale AI adoption and business outcomes.Also read: Morgan Stanley says Indian stock market poised for strong year ahead. Hereโs whyThe company said the platform is designed around key insurance stakeholders, including brokers, underwriters, claims adjudicators and customer service agents. Looking ahead, Coforge plans to progressively integrate insurance knowledge graphs into the platform to enhance insurance-specific reasoning across submissions, policies, claims and customer interactions.Coforge said Nexa Agentic AI Platform will form a key part of its insurance go-to-market strategy, helping clients accelerate AI adoption while preserving existing technology investments and complying with platform guardrails.(Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of The Economic Times)
Mumbai: Information technology stocks surged on Monday, dodging a weak broader market, with the Nifty IT index closing at its highest level since April 23, as attractive valuations and recent AI-led partnerships drew investor interest and prompted traders to build some fresh long positions.The Nifty IT index advanced 2.7%, its strongest single-day gain in nearly two weeks (since May 19), even as the benchmark Nifty declined 0.7%. Tech Mahindra, Infosys and LTM rose 3.7% each, while Persistent Systems gained 3.6%. Coforge and Oracle Financial Services Software advanced 2.6% and 2.1%, respectively."Indian IT firms are following suit of American companies like Anthropic and OpenAI by taking up contracts and tie-ups which are perceived as promising by investors," said Gaurav Sharma, head of Research, Globe Capital.Wipro's expanded Agentic AI partnership with ServiceNow and Coforge's acquisition of Encora have helped ease concerns that had weighed on the sector earlier due to AI-linked disruption fears.The rebound comes after a sharp underperformance this year. The Nifty IT index has fallen over 21% so far in 2026, compared with a 10.5% decline in the benchmark Nifty. The recent momentum has turned positive, with the IT index gaining about 3% over the past week, while the Nifty has fallen 2.7%.131452365"The open interest has doubled in the past couple of months in large-cap IT stocks, indicating a huge build-up of short positions," said Jay Vora, Technical Analyst, Mirae Asset Sharekhan. "On Monday, while short positions remained as is, traders built fresh long positions in the space."Vora said that a more meaningful short covering rally would require stocks to move above key technical levels, with most large-cap names currently 2-3% below their 40-day exponential moving averages."There are short positions in the midcap IT companies as well, but it is not as significant as the large caps," he said.The rebound in IT shares is also on account of valuations falling below 10-year averages following the recent sell-off."Large-cap names like TCS and Infosys are trading at mouthwatering levels, close to 16-17 times Price to Earnings, while midcap companies like Coforge, Oracle and Mphasis are around 20-30 times PE, which are attractive," Sharma said.While near-term volatility may persist, valuations remain compelling over a two-to-three-year horizon, he said. Sharma's top picks are OFSS, Tech Mahindra, Coforge and Mphasis, and recommends IT Exchange Traded Funds for retail investors.The momentum favours IT stocks now, though the index is nearing key hurdles."Technically, the Nifty IT index has immediate support established at the 29,300-28,900 zone, while initial resistance is positioned at 30,500, with a broader multi-week position of 31,200," said Nischal Jain, Quant Researcher, Share.Market by PhonePe.Sharma said the Nifty IT index is on the verge of a breakout from an inverse head and shoulder pattern, which could extend the rally towards 31,500.
The AI-powered, life-size 3D avatar of Mahatma Gandhi โ now live at the Pradhanmantri Sangrahalaya in the capital โ is fielding questions from visitors and answering in Gandhiโs own voice, based on his documented speeches, writings and recorded views.
Wall Street stocks posted modest gains on โMonday as investors watched developments in U.S.-Iran peace negotiations and cheered the unveiling of a new computer chip that promises to bring artificial intelligence to personal computing.Tech shares boosted the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 to their latest in a series of record closing highs.U.S. President Donald โTrump said talks โ with Iran โ continue. Earlier, Iran's news agency announced Tehran is halting indirect negotiations with Washington after a new round of strikes threatened to derail diplomatic efforts to โend the war, now in its fourth month.The intensification of hostilities sent crude prices jumping, along with worries over the extent to which โa protracted war could result in heightened, intransitory inflation."We don't really know where things stand," said Thomas Martin, senior portfolio manager at GLOBALT in Atlanta. "The market seems to think that something's going to get done at some point, but we don't have โvery good information to go on, like what the Iranians really want and โ what Trump โis willing to settle for."Stocks added to their gains after Trump said no Israeli troops would โgo into Beirut, โciting a call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.Nvidia jumped after the company unveiled a โ new chip that puts AI capabilities directly into personal computers.The chip is the โresult of a three-year partnership with Microsoft to "reinvent the PC" for the AI era, โNvidia CEO Jensen Huang said. Microsoft shares rose.The reaction among semiconductor stocks was mixed. Qualcomm tumbled and while Intel also fell. Micron shares rose sharply, breaching the $1,000 mark for the first time.The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor Index advanced.In economic news, U.S. factory activity expanded in May for the fifth consecutive month as goods-makers navigate tariff and geopolitical crosswinds.Investors will turn to Friday's jobs report ahead of Kevin Warsh's debut policy meeting as chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve this month, amid fears โof rising inflation linked to the Iran war that could upend the stock market rally.According to preliminary data, the S&P 500 gained 20.19 points, or 0.27%, to end at 7,600.03 points, while the โNasdaq Composite gained โ114.75 points, or 0.43%, to 27,087.37. โ The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 44.70 points, or 0.09%, to 51,076.85.Software stocks rebounded from heavy selling earlier this year on AI disruption fears. ServiceNow and IBM rose sharply. The software services index advanced."On the software side, companies that hadn't โbeen doing very well, but now are doing well today," Martin added. "Some of that has been attributed to Nvidia comments that software is part of the solution, so the market's coming back to" software stocks.Cadence Design Systems jumped after launching an Nvidia-powered AI agent for chip design.Broadcom's earnings, due on Wednesday, will be closely parsed in the wake of solid results from Dell last week, which signaled strong AI server demand.