The overarching narrative is that Indian equity markets missed out on the global artificial intelligence boom. But a look under the hood reveals a slew of smaller firms winning from trillions of dollars being spent on AI capacity.
The poster child for this rally is Sterlite Technologies Ltd., the optical-fiber maker owned by the Vedanta Group which has surged 500% this year. It got a $1.1 billion multi-year contract from a US-based hyperscaler last month. Its competitor, HFCL Ltd., has jumped 176% while MTAR Technologies Ltd., which makes precision cooling and power components, has more than trebled.
An equal-weighted Bloomberg index of 28 Indian companies that feed the data-center ecosystem — from makers of transformers, switchgear, wires to cables and cooling systems — has added about $48 billion in combined market value this year, a rise of nearly 45%. The benchmark NSE Nifty 500, meanwhile, has lost over $300 billion in 2026.
