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Research Primer · Dart Consultants

India's AI Infrastructure Stack

A Ground-Up Primer on the entire value chain feeding India's AI data centres — chip design, packaging, server assembly and the GPU-cloud sold on top of it, down through the power, cooling, cabling and construction that keep it running — and the thirty-five listed companies building every layer of it.

Primer sections11
Companies35
Value-chain layers10
Ratings8B·14H·13S
Anatomy of India's AI infrastructure stack

The Primer

11 sections, read start to finish or jump to any one
Orientation

How to read this report

This report merges two Dart Consultants primers researched independently — "India's AI Compute Stack" (the chip-to-server-to-GPU-cloud half) and…

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Section 1

The vocabulary

Seven terms decide almost everything about who can compete where in this stack, and what they are allowed to earn for it — three from the compute…

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Section 2

The pattern that repeats at every layer

Two independent Dart Consultants research efforts, covering ten distinct sub-industries between them, each converged on the same finding without…

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Section 3

Why the hard half is hard, at every layer

Three reasons the hard half does not scale the way the easy half does — and one honest structural difference between the two halves of this report's…

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Section 4

Specification-driven build vs. custom engineering

Why does a conventional operator get any work at this stack's hard layers at all? Because in a specification-driven build, someone else has already…

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Section 5

Classes & the full value ladder

Reading this report's own company research from the most commodity-priced to the most engineered layer of the entire stack — wafer to substation —…

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Section 6

The industry & demand drivers

One enormous global demand cycle, three India-specific compute-policy instruments, and India's own physical data-centre build-out are all running…

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Section 7

Two anchor structures, stacked

This is the section where the two halves of this report's own research diverge most clearly, and it is worth reading as a genuine structural finding…

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Section 8

The parts the data misses

Five pools of value or risk are structurally undercounted, mis-modelled, or simply invisible to the headline statistics used to size this opportunity…

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Section 9

The companies

Thirty-five NSE/BSE-listed companies touch this stack today, from a ₹12,491 crore pure-play GPU-cloud operator to a ₹11.8 lakh crore telecom major…

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Section 10

Synthesis

Global hyperscaler capex is not slowing — four companies alone guide to ~$725bn in 2026, up 77% YoY — and India's own build-out is executing, not…

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Section 11

Ratings summary

Ratings key, used consistently across every company report in this document:

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Notes

Methodology, data caveats & who we are

This report merges two Dart Consultants primers built independently on the same first-principles method: identify the one real structural asymmetry…

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The Thirty-Five Companies

8 BUY · 14 HOLD · 13 SELL
BUYDIXON

Dixon Technologies (India)

India's largest EMS company, entering servers through the back door of a Taiwanese ODM joint venture

Target ₹15,360 · CMP ₹13,005 · +18.1%
BUYVOLTAMP

Voltamp Transformers Ltd

The cheapest name in the power-equipment cluster, carrying this report's single strongest data-center order-mix data point

Target ₹13,224 · CMP ₹10,879 · +21.6%
BUYENRIN

Siemens Energy India Ltd

The strongest growth profile in this report's grid-equipment cluster, with a real, if still unquantified, AI-data-center partnership

Target ₹4,053 · CMP ₹3,228 · +25.6%
BUYARE&M

Amara Raja Energy & Mobility Ltd

The cheapest stock in this report's entire universe — a real, scaling battery-storage business priced like a legacy industrial, with a data-center angle that is genuine but secondary

Target ₹918 · CMP ₹796 · +15.3%
BUYPOLYCAB

Polycab India Ltd

India's largest wires & cables maker, with this report's cleanest financial reconciliation and a dual-AAA balance sheet — the data-center angle is real but still analyst-driven, not company-disclosed

Target ₹10,032 · CMP ₹8,400 · +19.4%
BUYKEI

KEI Industries Ltd

Steady 23% revenue CAGR, a three-agency AA+/A1+ endorsement, and management's own ₹25,000 crore data-center number — real, but still forward-looking, not yet booked

Target ₹5,584 · CMP ₹4,650 · +20.1%
BUYTECHNOE

Techno Electric & Engineering Company Ltd

Commissioned, not merely announced — the most credible pure-play data-centre EPC vertical in this report's construction category, still cheap at 23.3x

Target ₹1,238 · CMP ₹1,030 · +20.2%
BUYKPIL

Kalpataru Projects International Ltd

A diversified EPC compounder with margins moving the right way — but the weakest-evidenced data-center linkage of any construction name in this report

Target ₹1,647 · CMP ₹1,446 · +13.9%
HOLDCGPOWER

CG Power and Industrial Solutions

A power-equipment giant with a genuinely operational semiconductor optionality, priced as if the optionality has already paid off

Target ₹873 · CMP ₹892 · (2.1)%
HOLDLTTS

L&T Technology Services

The best credit quality and the cheapest multiple in this report — for a semiconductor practice it will not size for you

Target ₹3,476 · CMP ₹3,339 · +4.1%
HOLDSASKEN

Sasken Technologies

A real AI-silicon design win inside a small company whose recent growth is mostly an acquisition, not the win itself

Target ₹1,677 · CMP ₹1,720 · (2.5)%
HOLDRAILTEL

RailTel Corporation of India

A profitable, near-debt-free railway-telecom PSU with a genuinely growing data-centre sliver — undercut by recurring board-composition fines and a bearish Street

Target ₹278 · CMP ₹265 · +4.9%
HOLDANANTRAJ

Anant Raj Ltd

A real-estate landlord scaling into a genuine data-centre platform and demerging it into a dedicated listing — clouded by an unresolved Enforcement Directorate probe

Target ₹585 · CMP ₹606 · (3.5)%
HOLDBHARTIARTL

Bharti Airtel Ltd

Included for completeness of India's data-center ownership map — Nxtra is real, but too small to move Airtel's own investment case

Target ₹2,039 · CMP ₹1,893 · +7.7%
HOLDTATACOMM

Tata Communications Ltd

A divested data-center real-estate business, replaced by a pending minority-stake re-rating and a smaller, already-consolidated Nvidia AI Cloud build

Target ₹1,852 · CMP ₹1,780 · +4.0%
HOLDPOWERINDIA

Hitachi Energy India Ltd

Genuinely excellent fundamentals, priced for a scarcity premium the India entity itself has not confirmed

Target ₹34,408 · CMP ₹32,700 · +5.2%
HOLDABB

ABB India Ltd

The clearest management-quoted pricing-power evidence in this report, priced at a multiple sell-side itself cannot agree on

Target ₹7,730 · CMP ₹7,270 · +6.3%
HOLDBLUESTARCO

Blue Star Ltd

The strongest confirmed cooling-specific data-centre business in this report — beside a record order book that has not, this year, translated into higher profit

Target ₹1,607 · CMP ₹1,532 · +4.9%
HOLDFINCABLES

Finolex Cables Ltd

India's largest diversified cable maker looks cheap and debt-free on the surface — but two different EBITDA numbers and a live promoter voting-rights dispute complicate the read

Target ₹1,552 · CMP ₹1,411 · +10.0%
HOLDLT

Larsen & Toubro Ltd

Rated on infrastructure, energy and IT scale, not on data centers: L&T-Vyoma is real, but at roughly one-hundredth of one percent of group revenue, not yet the story

Target ₹4,017 · CMP ₹3,885 · +3.4%
HOLDSIEMENS

Siemens Ltd

A high-quality franchise wrapped in a reporting mess this report cannot fully unwind — and only a diluted data-center play regardless

Target ₹3,766 · CMP ₹3,914 · (3.8)%
HOLDTHERMAX

Thermax Ltd

The most credible named hyperscale cooling order in this report — sitting inside the same year as an 85% profit collapse from a legacy EPC project

Target ₹3,419 · CMP ₹3,552 · (3.7)%
SELLNETWEB

Netweb Technologies India

This report's own thesis, priced against itself: the purest AI-server play here, at the richest multiple

Target ₹4,016 · CMP ₹4,664 · (13.9)%
SELLADANIENT

Adani Enterprises Ltd

A $275 million US sanctions settlement and an unresolved land-allotment PIL overshadow a data-center JV whose financials are not even disclosed

Target ₹2,620 · CMP ₹3,020 · (13.3)%
SELLKAYNES

Kaynes Technology India

A real, operational OSAT asset, sitting inside a year of genuine governance and execution deterioration

Target ₹2,925 · CMP ₹3,515 · (16.8)%
SELLCYIENT

Cyient

A real AI acquisition bolted onto five years of declining core-business economics

Target ₹988 · CMP ₹1,073 · (7.9)%
SELLSYRMA

Syrma SGS Technology

A genuinely improving EMS business trading well ahead of nearly every named brokerage's own target

Target ₹1,250 · CMP ₹1,729 · (27.7)%
SELLE2E

E2E Networks Ltd

India's only pure-play listed GPU cloud — a genuine NVIDIA and sovereign-AI story, priced as if the depreciation line and the FY26 loss don't exist

Target ₹447 · CMP ₹608 · (26.5)%
SELLESDS

ESDS Software Solution Ltd

A ~2-week-old listing already trading above its only located brokerage target, on a single contract worth ~25x FY26 revenue with an unverified counterparty

Target ₹1,000 · CMP ₹1,565 · (36.1)%
SELLKEC

KEC International Ltd

A record order book, a shrinking margin — commodity EPC execution under structural pressure, with a brand-new, unproven data-centre angle layered on top

Target ₹349 · CMP ₹404 · (13.6)%
SELLAHLUCONT

Ahluwalia Contracts (India)

A 35-40% NCR minimum-wage shock has erased the margin story, and CARE's own downgrade trigger already looks breached, unconfirmed

Target ₹476 · CMP ₹585 · (18.6)%
SELLGVT&D

GE Vernova T&D India Ltd

A record backlog built on the up-cycle's tailwind, priced as if the cycle never turns — while order intake already says otherwise

Target ₹3,480 · CMP ₹4,385 · (20.6)%
SELLVOLTAS

Voltas Ltd

The best cross-checked data-centre order-book evidence in this report, undermined by a 79x multiple on a profit that halved

Target ₹819 · CMP ₹1,111 · (26.3)%
SELLSCHNEIDER

Schneider Electric Infrastructure Ltd

The clearest brand-exposure trap in this report: the "Schneider = data-center power" story sits in an unlisted sister company, not these shares

Target ₹515 · CMP ₹1,214 · (57.6)%
SELLSTLTECH

Sterlite Technologies Ltd

The most material, best-quantified data-centre revenue story in this report's universe — wrapped in the least reliable financial data of any company in it

Target ₹191 · CMP ₹819 · (76.7)%
Educational material only — not investment advice. Dart Consultants is not a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser or Research Analyst.