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Research Primer · Dart Consultants

India's AI Compute Stack

A Ground-Up Primer on the chip-to-cluster value chain feeding the world's AI data centres — from silicon design to the liquid-cooled rack, and from the GPU-cloud sold on top of it to the telecom and conglomerate balance sheets funding it — and the fifteen listed companies building India's slice of it.

Primer sections11
Companies15
Value-chain layers7
Ratings1B·7H·7S
Anatomy of India's AI compute stack

The Primer

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

How to read this report

This is a first-principles primer, not a broker initiation note with an industry preamble bolted on front. The order is deliberate: the physical and…

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Section 1

The vocabulary

Three terms decide almost everything about who can compete where in this industry, and what they are allowed to earn for it. Learn these three and…

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Section 2

The two problems

Every good version of this kind of report is built on one real structural asymmetry inside the product. Here is the AI compute stack's.

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Section 3

Why compute qualification is the hard problem

Three reasons the hard half does not scale the way the easy half does.

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Section 4

Reference-design build vs. custom engineering

If qualification is this demanding, why does a conventional EMS operation get any AI-server work at all? Because in a reference-design build, Nvidia…

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Section 5

Classes & the value ladder

The industry describes a company two different ways, and the two descriptions do not always point to the same conclusion. The first is…

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Section 6

The industry & demand drivers

One enormous, well-documented global demand cycle is running underneath this entire report, and three India-specific policy cycles are running…

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Section 7

The anchor buyers — Nvidia and the state

This sector has an unusual dual anchor structure, and it is a tighter, more concentrated version of the dual structure seen in other India industrial…

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Section 8

The parts the data misses

Three pools of value are structurally undercounted, or structurally mis-modelled, by the headline statistics used to size this opportunity. This is…

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Section 9

The companies

Fifteen NSE/BSE-listed companies touch this value chain today, from a ₹11.8 lakh crore telecom major with a sliver of data-centre exposure to a…

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Section 10

Synthesis

Global hyperscaler capex is not slowing — four companies alone are guiding to ~$725bn in 2026, up 77% YoY, and every one of them has said the binding…

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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 primer follows Dart Consultants' standard first-principles method: identify the one real structural asymmetry inside the product (§2), derive…

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The Fifteen Companies

1 BUY · 7 HOLD · 7 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%
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%
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%
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)%
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)%
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)%
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)%
Educational material only — not investment advice. Dart Consultants is not a SEBI-registered Investment Adviser or Research Analyst.