NTT Data plans to add 5,000 employees in India this year and expand data center investments, signaling renewed global IT demand and North America growth.
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| NTT Data’s planned hiring surge and $1.5 billion data center investment highlight India’s growing role in global IT services and digital infrastructure. Image: CH |
New Delhi, India — February 27, 2026:
NTT Data is set to expand its India workforce by 5,000 employees this year, reinforcing the country’s position as a central hub in the global technology services ecosystem. The hiring push will span software programming, consulting and IT support roles, reflecting strengthening demand across multiple industry verticals.
The Tokyo-based firm, a subsidiary of NTT Group, currently employs around 40,000 people in India. The planned expansion comes as large IT contracts exceeding $100 million have doubled over the past 12 months, according to Sudhir Chaturvedi, the company’s chief growth officer and CEO for North America. Many of these deals originate from manufacturing, logistics and public sector clients, signaling broader enterprise technology spending beyond the artificial intelligence boom.
Chaturvedi said North America has returned to growth, with expectations of strong expansion in the next financial year. The rebound in that market is particularly significant, as US and Canadian clients remain major revenue drivers for global IT services firms with large offshore operations in India.
The hiring announcement coincides with a major infrastructure buildout. NTT Data is investing $1.5 billion to construct four data centers in India, part of a wider strategy to capture rising demand for digital infrastructure. The move aligns with a broader industry trend, as both multinational and domestic companies race to expand data storage and processing capacity in Asia’s third-largest economy.
India currently hosts roughly 20% of the world’s data but accounts for less than 6% of global data center capacity, according to ratings agency ICRA. That imbalance presents a significant investment opportunity. The Indian government has further incentivized foreign participation by granting tax holidays for companies using local data centers, strengthening the country’s appeal as a digital infrastructure destination.
Chaturvedi also noted that clients’ overall technology budgets are expected to grow between 7% and 9% this year, compared with 6% to 7% last year. Notably, he indicated that spending increases are being driven not only by artificial intelligence initiatives but also by broader digital transformation projects. This suggests that enterprise IT investment is diversifying after a period heavily focused on AI experimentation.
For India, the expansion underscores its enduring strategic value in global IT outsourcing and cloud infrastructure development. For NTT Data, the twin strategy of workforce growth and data center investment signals confidence that demand for large-scale digital transformation projects will remain resilient despite macroeconomic uncertainties.
As global enterprises modernize operations and governments accelerate digitization efforts, India’s combination of skilled talent, policy incentives and rising data demand positions it as a pivotal growth market in the evolving international IT landscape.