Indian billionaire Gautam Adani is going all-in on AI infrastructure with a fresh $10 billion investment aimed at building massive data centers across India. Through Adani Enterprises and its joint venture AdaniConnex, the group is eyeing two 1-gigawatt facilities in states like Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat, with long-term plans to scale up to 10 GW. This aggressive push comes just months after the group pledged $5.9 billion to Maharashtra's data center ecosystem, showing Adani is not just dipping his toes—he's diving headfirst into what he sees as a defining digital opportunity.

This stands in sharp contrast to global tech giants, who are hitting pause on data center expansion. Microsoft is reassessing deployments from Chicago to Jakarta. Alibaba's (BABA, Financial) Joe Tsai has already waved the red flag on a potential data center bubble. But Adani and fellow Indian tycoon Mukesh Ambani are betting that India's AI and cloud boom is just getting started. They're fueled by surging demand from global capability centers and a growing appetite for outsourced business services. India's largest data centers still operate below the 1 GW mark—Adani wants to rewrite that ceiling.

For Adani Group, it's not just about capacity—it's about comeback. After a brutal year battling short-seller attacks and U.S. investigations, the group is back in expansion mode. Land acquisitions are underway, and the group is reportedly pursuing government-to-government contracts to secure anchor tenants. If successful, this could cement Adani's role as a key digital gatekeeper in the world's most populous country—just as global rivals pull back.