Adani says energy security and digital infrastructure will define geopolitical power in the AI era
New Delhi, 11 May (H.S.): Adani Group Chairman Gautam Adani on Monday said that artificial intelligence (AI) is set to create a revolution similar to India’s mobile-data boom, but warned that the technology would significantly increase global energy consumption in the coming decades.
Speaking at the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) Annual Business Summit 2026 in New Delhi, Adani stressed that energy security and digital infrastructure would become the defining pillars of geopolitical power in the future. He urged India to build sovereign capabilities across the entire AI value chain.
Drawing parallels with the country’s rapid expansion in mobile-data usage, Adani said that very few people had initially predicted the scale of India’s digital transformation. However, once smartphones became affordable, telecom networks expanded, and data prices fell, consumption surged exponentially across the country.
He stated that AI would trigger a similar wave of growth, but unlike mobile-data consumption, AI systems would require massive energy resources to power data centres, computing infrastructure and digital networks.
“Just as mobile data use exploded, AI will also drive exponential growth, but this growth will consume far more energy,” Adani said during his address.
Highlighting the scale of the challenge, Adani noted that India’s data-centre capacity, projected to reach around 5 gigawatts by 2030, could rise dramatically to nearly 75 gigawatts by 2047. He stressed that long-term energy planning would therefore become essential for sustaining India’s AI ambitions.
The industrialist also pointed to India’s progress in the energy sector, saying the country’s installed power capacity had crossed 500 gigawatts by March 2026. According to him, India’s energy capacity has grown by nearly 53 percent over the last decade, with the country now targeting an ambitious 2,000 gigawatts by 2047.
Adani further underlined India’s rapid economic rise, noting that while the country took 67 years to become a $2 trillion economy, the next two phases of $2 trillion growth were achieved in just 12 years.
“At this pace, India will add growth equivalent to an entire European-sized economy in GDP every decade,” he remarked.
Emphasising the strategic importance of AI, Adani said the future would not arrive automatically and that India’s next phase of freedom would be shaped in its power grids, data centres, laboratories, factories, classrooms and innovation ecosystems.
“In the age of AI, freedom will mean the ability to power oneself, to compute for oneself, and to dream for oneself,” he said.
He urged policymakers and industries to treat AI not merely as software, but as critical national infrastructure involving energy systems, semiconductors, data centres, networks, compute capabilities and skilled talent.
Adani concluded by saying India must build, power and own the infrastructure supporting its AI future rather than depending on external systems for technological growth and digital intelligence.
(With inputs from H.S.)
Edited by: Dikshita Bollu
Last Updated on: Monday, May 11, 2026 4:36 pm by Bollu Dikshitha | Published by: Bollu Dikshitha on Monday, May 11, 2026 4:36 pm | News Categories: India
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