 "Abhijit Dubey, chief executive officer of NTT Data")
For Japanese technology behemoth NTT, India is fast emerging as a strategic market, with the group aiming to see the region among its top five over the next three years. NTT Data, which has had a presence in India for more than 20 years and currently has a headcount of 40,000, is among the top 10 revenue-generating markets. ABHIJIT DUBEY, chief executive officer of NTT Data, in an interview with Shivani Shinde, talks about the impact of the recent merger, the Indian market, and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered data centres. Edited excerpts:
In 2022, NTT Data and NTT combined all their businesses outside Japan. What has been the impact?
The merger aimed to consolidate all our businesses outside Japan into a single entity, allowing us to offer a much stronger value proposition to our clients. By integrating our capabilities — ranging from physical data centres to ubiquitous connectivity and information technology services — we have significantly enhanced our positioning and relevance to global clients over the past nine to 12 months.
As a result, we are now securing marquee transformational deals that we were previously unable to win. Over the next three to four weeks, you will see some landmark deals in the industry that highlight our growing strength. With our restructured framework bringing together diverse assets and expertise, we are now perceived as one of the few players in the industry capable of executing such deals.
Additionally, the consolidation has accelerated innovation across the company. We now follow a ‘build once, deploy everywhere’ approach, allowing us to scale solutions rapidly across our client ecosystem. This structure also enables us to leverage the best of NTT Data’s global expertise — particularly in AI — by tapping into talent and knowledge from any part of the world.
When it comes to AI, are customers looking for AI-powered data centres?
Currently, the majority of high-end Nvidia graphics processing units are consumed by hyperscalers or some pure-play users because there is a demand-constrained environment. As a result, I do not see many private AI Cloud deployments yet. However, in the future, I believe there will be a meaningful and interesting segment of clients that will want private AI Clouds — not hyperscaler infrastructure. That is a segment we want to address.
What is the impact of DeepSeek on the demand for computing power?
That’s a great positive. With the Jevons paradox, you drop the unit cost economics, especially for inferencing, and unlock much more enterprise demand.
How is the regulatory environment evolving, and how does it impact you?
I am not sure if there is more clarity, but there is certainly more awareness. That’s why we had the AI Action Summit in Paris. We have always advocated for a minimal level of global regulatory consistency because it makes doing business easier. If every country comes out with its regulations, it becomes difficult to serve global clients with operations everywhere.
You say India is a strategic market. What are the drivers that will push it into the top five?
Three key parameters. First, secular demand — India is still one of the fastest-growing economies, and at its scale, it is the fastest. That alone will drive a lot of demand. Second, the ability to drive innovation within both the public and private sectors due to the lack of legacy systems. Third, as India leapfrogs and as the regulatory environment enables growth, we will see a lot of new demand emerge, especially as the private sector here builds global heft.
Several large conglomerates have announced their foray into the data centre segment. We also have Meta’s announcement of a submarine cable being launched. What does this mean for you?
The good news is that infrastructure development is happening, which is important. There is no doubt that the market is becoming more competitive. But as that happens, it also creates a war for talent, which means we need to sharpen our edge in construction and operations. Building and operating data centres is complex — raising capital is relatively easy, but execution is difficult. Additionally, sustainability is a critical factor, and we must integrate it into our strategy as we expand our presence in India.
