Wipro

Sept 17 (Reuters) - Wipro Limited WIPR.NS:

• LAUNCHES STO360™ SOLUTION WITH ARAMCO AND SAP

• COLLABORATION TO SUPPORT ASSET-INTENSIVE INDUSTRIES, INCLUDING OIL AND GAS, CHEMICALS

• LAUNCHES STO360™ SOLUTION WITH ARAMCO AND SAP

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

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By Sai Ishwarbharath B and Abhirami G

BENGALURU, Sept 10 (Reuters) - Wipro's WIPR.NS AI initiatives have increased productivity equivalent to the output of 20,000 employees, who have since been redeployed within the Indian IT firm, its chief technology officer said.

The comments come as India's $315 billion software services industry grapples with adoption of AI, which is reshaping hiring, software development and contracts.

Wipro, with about 243,000 employees in June, is shifting to a "human-AI operating model," with more than 100,000 employees receiving advanced AI-related training and certifications, Sandhya Arun said in an interview.

"It could be the same engineer managing a bunch of agents, deployed on other projects or being trained for some other role. It doesn't necessarily mean person-to-person replacement by an agent."

Arun's comments underscore Wipro Chairman Rishad Premji's views from last week.

India's largest software services exporter, Tata Consultancy Services, had said in June that IT firms would slow down hiring as the company moves towards ​having an equal number of employees and AI agents in its workforce.

TCS TCS.NS plans to build a team of up to 8,900 forward-deployed engineers, and Infosys INFY.NS about 6,000 over the next few years. These engineers embed with clients to accelerate AI adoption.

Wipro is also expanding its pool of forward-deployed engineers. While Arun declined to provide a specific target, she said Wipro's forward-deployed workforce would likely be in line with peers.

Arun cautioned against focusing too much on the role, saying the broader challenge was ensuring all engineers develop the skills needed to work effectively with AI systems.

"The shift has to be from productivity to outcomes," Arun said, arguing that AI should be evaluated on whether it improves customer experience, creates new revenue opportunities and helps deliver business goals.

Wipro is the only IT company among India's top four that does not reveal its AI revenue.

The firm is still in the earlier, cost-absorbing phase of AI monetisation relative to peers and the real test would come when these deals start converting to revenue and margin recovery, said Manoj Chandra Jha, principal analyst at Nord-IQ Research.

The company's investment intensity across AI-related training and ecosystem partnerships is comparable with peers including TCS, Infosys and HCLTech HCLT.NS, but Wipro trails in commercialization maturity, he added.

(Reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B and Abhirami G in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Mrigank Dhaniwala)

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The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, Sept 1 (Reuters Breakingviews) - The disruption from artificial intelligence across India's $315 billion IT services sector is forcing companies to get creative. Case in point: Tata Consultancy Services' TCS.NS recent tie-up with luxury carmaker Porsche P911_p.DE. Financial gains are limited for the $91 billion giant, but the alliance gives it a foothold in Europe's auto sector.

As part of the deal unveiled last week, TCS will buy Porsche's automotive and consulting unit MHP at a 320 million euro enterprise value, equal to 0.4 times the target's 2025 sales. At the same time, the high-end German manufacturer will commit 1.3 billion euros to the Indian group to "embed AI" across its operations in a five-year strategic partnership.

That works out to an extra $300 million for TCS's annual top line, or just 1% of revenue for the year to the end of March. Strategically, though, TCS gains expertise that rivals may struggle to replicate: MHP boasts roughly 4,500 employees and a client roster including Porsche and other car brands, as well as industrial groups spanning aerospace to energy. But the bigger prize may be direct access to the $45 billion Volkswagen group that also owns, in addition to Porsche, Audi, Lamborghini and other brands.

TCS has stepped up acquisitions of late, including two U.S. deals last year; expanding its footprint in Europe, which accounts for roughly a third of revenue, looks sensible. This year, it bagged an $800 million AI contract with Swedish manufacturer SKF SKFb.ST and launched a sovereign cloud computing service for European governments, public sector enterprises and regulated industries. Deepening ties with the region's industrial groups should help ease reliance on its biggest market by sales, North America. Revenue there grew just 2% last quarter from the same period last year, compared to the 4.3% increase in Continental Europe.

TCS's latest move echoes rival Wipro's WIPR.NS strategic tie-up, announced in May, with Singapore-based food and agricultural conglomerate Olam OLAG.SI, which also offloaded its IT and digital services to the Indian firm. Both deals underscore the need to find new growth in specialised areas as AI upends the industry's once-booming outsourcing business model. TCS's stock currently trades on less than 15 times forward 12-month earnings, per LSEG, far below its five-year average of over 25 times. Carving out industry niches is a promising strategy that will require some unusual dealmaking.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Tata Consultancy Services will buy Porsche AG's automotive and consulting unit MHP at an enterprise value of €320 million, the IT major said on August 24 in a stock exchange filing.

Under the partnership, Porsche has signed a five-year strategic deal with MHP and TCS amounting to €1.25 billion. The deal is expected to close by the end of the year.

(Editing by Robyn Mak; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on DUTTA/[email protected]))

** Shares of India's Wipro WIPR.NS rise 2% to 179.93 rupees

** IT services exporter on Thursday said it was expanding its partnership with Google Cloud to scale AI into core enterprise operations

** Co scaling internal deployment of Gemini enterprise as well so more than 10,000 AI-certified specialists can use advanced AI capabilities

** Co also building a dedicated team of more than 1,500 certified forward deployed engineers

** WIPR on avg rated "hold" by 39 analysts; median PT is 175 rupees - LSEG-compiled data

** Stock down 31.7% YTD

(Reporting by Abhirami G in Bengaluru)

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By Sai Ishwarbharath B, Abhirami G and Haripriya Suresh

BENGALURU, August 21 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence promised to disrupt India's IT industry and it is delivering.

Outsourcing giants like Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS, Wipro WIPR.NS, HCLTech HCLT.NS and Cognizant CTSH.O are rejigging business models, increasingly tying fees to performance outcomes instead of hours worked, as clients demand steep price cuts and more productivity.

Industry executives also say they are losing some work entirely as customers use AI to shift tasks in-house, while all the uncertainty that the new technology has brought is resulting in shorter contracts.

And where once the big IT companies won contracts because they could point to their huge employee base, that has become less and less of an advantage as AI automates more and more tasks — levelling the playing field for smaller rivals which have jumped at opportunities to snatch business.

"It's a desperate market for the service providers. The odds are very much in favour of clients," said Jimit Arora, CEO of research and advisory firm Everest Group.

Software companies globally have been battered by worries that AI will render key parts of their business obsolete, but India's IT industry — worth $315 billion in annual revenue — is the most obvious victim with its traditional reliance on billable hours.

The Nifty IT index .NIFTYIT has tumbled by a fifth this year, with its 10 constituents losing a combined $73 billion in market value.

CONTRACTS SHIFT TO MEASURABLE OUTCOMES

These days, pricing for contracts is more likely to be dictated by performance outcomes.

TCS Chief Executive K Krithivasan told Reuters that about 80% of the company's contracts within its finance, human resources and other business services segment are now based on outcome performance measures.

That number represents a doubling since AI went mainstream in late 2023, said a person with knowledge of the matter, who was not authorised to speak to media and declined to be identified. TCS did not respond to a request for comment.

Other examples in the industry include an AI and automation deal Cognizant CTSH.O struck with Daimler Truck DTGGe.DE in February. It stipulated AI-related cost savings would be split between the vendor and the client, according to people familiar with the terms.

"With AI, the fundamentals are shifting," Cognizant said in a statement to Reuters, though it declined to comment on specific contracts. "Clients now expect more value and measurable outcomes, and we are re-forging our model for that reality."

Daimler Truck did not respond to a request for comment.

A separate multiyear cloud management deal forged in June 2025 was structured so HCLTech will not be paid by German utility E.ON EONGn.DE for the first year, with payments from the second year tied to efficiency gains and specific business outcomes, according to two people familiar with the agreement.

E.ON declined to comment, while HCLTech did not respond to a request for comment.

CLIENTS WANT MORE BANG FOR THEIR BUCK

As AI drives productivity gains, clients have become increasingly vocal about getting more for less.

Persistent Systems PERS.NS CEO Sandeep Kalra told Reuters that the IT provider's clients were demanding the same work for 25% to 30% less while expecting faster delivery and higher productivity.

But on the plus side, AI is helping Persistent win larger deals than it would have previously.

"The demarcation of a scale player only by revenue is not necessarily a big thing today," he said.

IT executives and analysts alike say competition from mid-sized firms has become brutally fierce.

Many customers now want rapid development of pilot programmes and smaller firms are winning mandates by deploying senior leaders quickly and offering flexible pricing, says Phil Fersht, CEO and chief analyst at HFS Research.

"Many Tier 2 firms have been more agile and hungry in this phase," he said.

Both Persistent and Coforge COFO.NS, another mid-sized IT services provider, have seen revenue in dollar terms grow by double digits for at least eight quarters in a row. In April-June, revenue for Persistent surged 16%, while Coforge's sales jumped by a third.

In contrast, TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCLTech had subdued growth of 1% to 3%.

IRRATIONAL EXUBERANCE?

As pressure from clients grows, some firms are making rash decisions, says Tech Mahindra TEML.NS CEO Mohit Joshi.

Some rivals are factoring in productivity gains of 70% to 80% over five to seven years and guaranteeing prices despite rising chip costs, Joshi told an analysts' call last month, adding that his company had chosen not to take such risks.

"Clearly, there is a ton of competition out there, and our competition at times is doing irrational things," he said.

Infosys last month also told analysts it had walked away from contracts that were no longer economically viable.

TCS's Krithivasan said that so far the company has been able to offset AI-related downward pressure on revenue with new work.

"But how fast and how much more we are able to go ahead of the (revenue) deflation will determine the growth going forward," he added.

TCS is also boosting its numbers of engineers who embed with clients to accelerate AI adoption and is hunting for AI acquisitions.

It is thus far the only Indian IT services provider to have announced mass layoffs in the AI era, implementing cuts of more than 12,000 last year. But companies have flagged that their traditional role as huge hirers of new recruits may be winding down.

The country's IT giants will no longer need large ranks of entry-level engineers, according to former Infosys CFO V. Balakrishnan.

"The pyramid model is gone. With coding agents, we no longer need basic coding," he said.

(Reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B, Abhirami G and Haripriya Suresh in Bengaluru; Editing by Dhanya Skariachan and Edwina Gibbs)

(([email protected]))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own. Updates to add graphic.

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, Aug 14 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India's $315 billion IT industry was once easy for investors to read: work was largely billed on human effort, so headcount was a straightforward indicator of revenue growth and earnings potential. That correlation is fraying as AI tools made by Anthropic, OpenAI and others mean IT companies can serve clients with fewer people and increase revenue without hiring. New measures are needed to differentiate between firms adapting fast enough and those who can't keep up.

Traditional contracts paid IT companies for hours worked and engineers deployed. That model is fading fast, especially at smaller and more agile firms. Yet the distinction is not reflected in share prices. Investors have indiscriminately dumped shares in giants led by $90 billion Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS , Infosys INFY.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS, alongside stakes in smaller providers like Blackstone-backed BX.N Mphasis MBFL.NS. The benchmark Nifty IT index .NIFTYIT is down 17% this year.

Some companies are starting to report "AI revenue". Venu Lambu, the boss of $15 billion LTM LTIM.NS, reckons it will become the industry's defining metric but that seems unlikely. At Tata Consultancy, this newly adopted measure is poorly explained and, worse, lumpy. A more nuanced approach is probably required.

From March next year, $5 billion Mphasis,will report “key operating metrics” such as annual recurring revenue and platform attach rate. This suggests it sees a growing share of future revenue from selling software-like services. The firm already generates less than half of its topline from the traditional "Time and Materials" billable hours model. Similarly, $8.5 billion Coforge is building up a portfolio of AI-related software products and tools including 8 AI platforms, 22 AI assets and over 100 reusable AI agents, per its latest post-earnings call.

AI is not only making engineers more productive; it is also encouraging IT firms to package their expertise into reusable software platforms as clients increasing value speed of deployment. So instead of building a custom customer-service application from scratch, an outsourcer could deploy a pre-built AI platform across dozens of clients and charge subscription fees.. Attach rate would show how often clients purchase additional products or services after adopting a platform, offering a clue about future revenue growth.

This shift to a "services-as-software" model is imminent, says Sanjeev Narsipur, Managing Director and Lead of Digital, AI and Technology Services at Alvarez & Marsal. And as this line blurs globally, AI developers OpenAI and Anthropic are also moving into enterprise services. Whatever the way forward, after decades of falling back on old metrics, IT firms need to find new ways to demonstrate their worth.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Blackstone-backed Mphasis sees a shift toward "recurring, platform-attached revenue” the company said on July 24 in a post-earnings call. In May, the company said it would start reporting “key operating metrics” such as annual revenue runrate, platform attach rate and net retention rate for the year ending March 2028.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on DUTTA/[email protected]))

Adds details throughout

Aug 10 (Reuters) - National Stock Exchange of India NSEI.NS said on Monday exchange operator BSE BSEL.NS will replace information technology company Wipro WIPR.NS in its benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI index effective September 30.

BSE has been added to the Nifty 50 as its six-month average free-float market capitalization was at least 1.5 times that of the index's smallest constituent Wipro, NSE said.

The change was announced as part of a semi-annual index review by the NSE.

The rejig comes as investors weigh AI-related risks to Indian IT service exporters and Indian households continue to move more of their savings into financial markets.

Changes to the Nifty 50 are closely watched as passive funds with about $97 billion of assets under management track the 50-stock index as of May 31, according to NSE data.

The index represents the 50 biggest companies in India based on average free-float market capitalization in the past six months, with trading liquidity criteria also applied before inclusion.

BSE's shares closed 4% higher earlier in the day, taking its gains so far in 2026 to around 37%. In contrast, Bengaluru-based Wipro fell 1.1% on Monday and is down 29.5% for the year.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M and Nishit Navin; Editing by Ronojoy Mazumdar)

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Adds analyst comment in paragraphs 5-6 and 13; updates shares

By Kashish Tandon

July 17 (Reuters) - Shares of India's Wipro WIPR.NS fell as much as 2.4% on Friday after the IT services firm's quarterly earnings miss and sluggish outlook indicated the company may be lagging its peers in an already challenging demand environment.

The stock was trading nearly 1% lower at 176.11 rupees, as of 03:04 p.m. IST, making it the second-biggest laggard on the Nifty IT index .NIFTYIT and among the top five losers on the benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI.

The Bengaluru-based software services exporter missed analysts' estimates for June quarter results and forecast September-quarter revenue between a 1.5% decline and a 0.5% growth in constant-currency terms.

The results from India's fourth-largest software-services exporter underscore persistent challenges for the country's $315 billion IT services sector, including subdued client spending, prolonged decision-making cycles and AI-driven efficiency measures.

"Wipro has always had a growth problem," said Sushovan Nayak, lead analyst at Anand Rathi Institutional Equities.

"Even now, if you adjust for acquisitions, organic growth was about negative 2% quarter-on-quarter. Growth has been elusive."

Fourteen brokerages cut their price targets on the stock after the results, according to LSEG-compiled data, dragging its median price target to 187 rupees from 210 rupees last month.

While rivals Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, HCLTech HCLT.NS and Tech Mahindra TEML.NS have shown greater resilience, analysts said Wipro continues to struggle to convert large contract wins into revenue growth.

Total deal wins for Wipro fell to $3.37 billion from $5 billion a year earlier.

Investec called the period "another quarter of disappointment" and warned that growth remained constrained by delayed client decisions and slow execution of large deals.

Ambit Capital and BOB Capital Markets said fiscal 2027 could mark Wipro's fourth consecutive year of organic revenue decline, with BOB Capital Markets adding that execution remains Wipro's biggest challenge.

Meanwhile, smaller rival Tech Mahindra TEML.NS, which also reported its June-quarter results on Thursday and beat revenue estimates, jumped 4.8% as analysts said strong deal wins and margin improvement could make it one of the fastest-growing companies among its peers.

"Tech Mahindra's performance was due to strong execution and a focus on telecom deals, while Wipro remained in the degrowth phase, with weak execution, delayed ramp ups, wage hikes reflected in its growth, deal TCV and margins," Nayak said.

Wipro shares have fallen over 33% so far this year, while Tech Mahindra has dropped nearly 1%. The Nifty IT index is down nearly 23% year-to-date.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips and Sonia Cheema)

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Updates with closing levels

By Mridula Kumar

July 10 (Reuters) - India's Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS rose as much as 4.1% on Friday after better-than-expected quarterly revenue on strong banking demand and rising AI revenue, though analysts said the broader sector recovery was likely to remain gradual.

Shares of the country's top software services exporter trimmed some gains to close about 1% higher at 2,069 rupees, helping lift the benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI 1.02% higher.

The IT index .NIFTYIT gained about 1.96% during the session.

Analysts said investors were looking at positive growth expectations for TCS in the coming quarters, led by AI revenue, with multiple brokerages also citing strong growth in banking, financial services and insurance, high-tech and regional markets.

"The company expects AI adoption growth and transformation to pick up, and they expect better numbers," said Piyush Pandey, lead IT Analyst at Centrum Broking.

Annualized AI revenue crossed $2.6 billion, driven by faster deployments across industries, rising from $2.3 billion in the previous quarter, TCS said.

Quarterly sales rose 14% to 722.75 billion rupees ($7.58 billion), while CEO K Krithivasan signalled a second-quarter recovery in manufacturing and life sciences demand.

SUBDUED QUARTER, GRADUAL RECOVERY

While the results offered investors early signs that growth may be stabilizing in India's $315 billion IT sector, analysts said a broader recovery was likely to remain gradual as demand concerns remained after expectations of another subdued quarter.

Flattish international revenue and a 3% year-on-year fall in headcount suggested continued sluggishness, according to Citi, while Nomura analysts said macro uncertainty still weighed on the near-term outlook.

Brokerages had flagged a low growth rate for the company in fiscal 2027 due to AI-led deflation.

The earliest the net AI impact will turn accretive for the sector and company is mid- to end-fiscal 2028, HSBC said post the results, adding that TCS' quarterly earnings offered limited grounds for pessimistic investors to reassess their stance.

Rivals Infosys INFY.NS, HCLTech HCLT.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS are expected to report their quarterly earnings later in the month.

($1 = 95.3150 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Mridula Kumar in Bengaluru; Writing by Abinaya V; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala and Janane Venkatraman)

(([email protected]))

By Haripriya Suresh and Bharath Rajeswaran

BENGALURU, July 6 (Reuters) - India's top information technology companies are expected to report another subdued quarter, as AI-driven pricing pressure, weak client spending, and global geopolitical turmoil continue to weigh on growth, nine brokerages said.

The April-to-June quarter is usually a strong one for India's $315 billion IT sector, helped by higher billing days and new project starts, but analysts expect a slow start to the fiscal year that would push back hopes of a recovery.

India's largest IT services company, Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, kicks off earnings on Thursday with peers Infosys INFY.NS, HCLTech HCLT.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS reporting later this month.

While India's top six IT firms are expected to report around 14% year-on-year revenue growth in rupee terms with net profit rising 12%-13%, this would largely be due to the impact of sharp rupee depreciation. Stripping out exchange rate effects, the companies are expected to post a mere 2.8% revenue growth in constant-currency terms.

Citi expects a fourth straight year of subdued growth for Indian IT firms, while JPMorgan sees revenue growth staying below 3%-4% for the "foreseeable future".

The IT sector is racing to adapt to changing customer needs as companies across the globe step up the use of AI tools and agents to cut costs and quicken software development cycles.

Software firms have slowed hiring, with TCS Chairman N Chandrasekaran saying the "day is not far" when the company would have an equal number of AI agents and employees.

Indian IT firms are in a "perfect storm," Nomura said in its earnings preview, with Middle East conflict-led uncertainty compounding AI-driven pricing pressure.

Fears that AI would disrupt the IT sector's traditional, labour-intensive business model dragged the Nifty IT index .NIFTYIT down 9.5% in the June quarter even as India's benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI gained 6.9%.

The IT index has slumped about 28% so far in 2026, making it the worst-performing major sector in India.

The impact of AI-led disruption and weakness in client spending will be broad-based, according to PL Capital, with effects visible in the consumer, hi-tech, and telecom verticals.

"Slower decision-making and elongated sales cycle are leading to delays in revenue conversion and execution," the brokerage said in a note.

Annual revenue forecasts will be a key focus for investors. Brokerages say Infosys and HCLTech could narrow or trim the upper end of their forecasts.

Potentially higher interest rates in the U.S., which makes up about 60% of Indian IT firms' revenue, also loom.

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh and Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

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June 23 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO - SIGNS DEFINITIVE AGREEMENT TO BUY ALPHA NET CONSULTING CUSTOMER CONTRACTS

• WIPRO - DEAL TO COMPLETE BY SEPTEMBER 30, 2026

Source text: ID:nBSE4gL9Mh

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

(([email protected];))

BENGALURU, June 19 (Reuters) - India's Nifty IT index .NIFTYIT slumped 5.8% on Friday after industry bellwether Accenture ACN.N forecast quarterly ​sales below Wall Street view and lowered the upper end of its annual revenue outlook due to weakness in its Middle East business.

Shares of Indian IT companies, including Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, Infosys INFY.NS, and HCL Technologies HCLT.NS fell between 5% and 7%.

(Reporting by Haripriya Suresh in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

(([email protected]))

June 18 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO - TO BUY ADDITIONAL 20% STAKE IN AGGNE GLOBAL IT SERVICES BY JUNE 30, 2026

• WIPRO - PURCHASE CONSIDERATION OF $2.1 MILLION

Source text: ID:nBSE1gYvqG

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

(([email protected];))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Ujjaini Dutta

BENGALURU, June 17 (Reuters Breakingviews) - HCLTech’s HCLT.NS decision to lead a fundraising round for India’s sovereign AI posterchild is both timely and shrewd. The $32 billion IT services firm's 10% stake in Sarvam, valuing the startup at $1.5 billion, is small enough to limit any risk yet showy enough to deflect mounting criticism that the world's back office is underinvesting as AI eats away at its revenue.

To be sure, Sarvam, founded by Vivek Raghavan and Pratyush Kumar, is not a neat fit for its newest big backer. The barely three-year-old startup's large language model is optimised for Indic languages but HCL's client base is largely outside the country, mostly in the United States and Europe: India accounted for just 3% of HCLTech's annual sales in the year to the end of March 2026.

And while the IT industry's decades-long success is often attributed to New Delhi staying out of the way, Sarvam is at the heart of the government's IndiaAI Mission. Through that initiative, the startup has secured financial and compute support, including subsidised access to Nvidia's NVDA.O graphics processing chips.

Of course, taking a stake in India's sovereign AI champion could unlock more domestic deals for the C Vijayakumar-led company with Indian enterprises. And it might also get early access to Sarvam's latest tech, as Microsoft MSFT.O did through its investment in OpenAI, though the company run by Satya Nadella also bagged a huge customer for its Azure cloud business.

The political returns for HCL at least appear more certain. Washington's order for Anthropic to suspend access for non-U.S. residents to its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models will only deepen the desire of governments around the world to find their own sovereign AI solutions across compute infrastructure, AI models and user-facing AI software. That will require oodles of capital.

HCL's rivals such as Wipro WIPR.NS and Infosys INFY.NS are attempting to counter AI deflation on their revenues in other ways. Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, for example, is investing in a data centre. Backing Sarvam is, for now, less expensive and probably more politically savvy. They may be tempted to pile in too.

Follow Ujjaini Dutta on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

HCLTech will acquire a 10.5% stake in Sarvam AI for ‌14.27 billion rupees ($150.7 million) in cash, the Indian IT services company said in a stock exchange filing on June 15. HCL co-led the fundraising round with Bessemer Venture Partners. It also included existing investors Khosla Ventures and Peak XV Partners.

The investment will allow the Indian IT services company to develop specific language models and AI solutions for its global client base and accelerate the development of sovereign AI solutions for governments and regulated industries, HCLTech said.

Sarvam was valued at $1.5 billion in the round, which raised $234 million in its first close out of a targeted $300 million. The AI startup is backed by India's government AI Mission.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on DUTTA/[email protected]))

June 16 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO - LAUNCHES APPLIED AI CENTER OF EXCELLENCE FOR CLAUDE MODELS POWERED BY ANTHROPIC

Source text: ID:nBSE9ZDcmv

Further company coverage: WIPR.NS

(([email protected];))

June 15 (Reuters) - Arcade.Dev:

• ARCADE.DEV: ANNOUNCED $60 MILLION IN SERIES A FUNDING

• ARCADE.DEV: SERIES A FUNDING LED BY SYN VENTURES, WITH STRATEGIC INVESTMENT FROM MORGAN STANLEY AND WIPRO

Source text: ID:nBw926VDna

Further company coverage: MS.N

(([email protected];))

** Wipro WIPR.NS falls as much as 6.19% to a three-year low of 186.01 rupees, making the software services company the top percentage loser on the Nifty 50 .NSEI and Nifty IT indexes .NIFTYIT, which are down 0.8% each

** Decline comes after the record date for its share buyback on Friday, likely prompting some short-term traders to exit positions, reducing overall buying interest, two analysts say

** A global technology rout also weighs on sentiment, alongside rising expectations of a U.S. Federal Reserve rate hike by year-end after a stronger-than-expected May jobs report

** Higher U.S. rates hurt Indian IT stocks by reducing appeal for foreign investors

** Financials and IT, which have relatively high foreign ownership, vulnerable to outflows

** Tighter U.S. policy could also slow client spending, a key revenue driver for software firms

** Wipro down 29.5% YTD, underperforming Nifty IT's 24% drop

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]; +91 9769003463;))

** India's Wipro WIPR.NS down 4% at 196.1 rupees

** Top loser on Nifty IT .NIFTYIT and benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI indexes, which are up 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively

** Stock down as Friday marks record date for company's share buyback of up to 150 billion rupees ($1.57 billion)

** Investors selling shares n Friday will be eligible for buyback

** Co to buy back shares via tender offer route; dates yet to be announced

** Stock rated "hold" on average by 40 brokerages, median PT at 210 rupees, per data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, WIPR down 25.5%, while NIFTYIT down 22.7%

($1 = 95.6600 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M)

(([email protected];))

June 3 (Reuters) - India's information technology stocks were headed for their biggest single-day drop in over four months on Wednesday as investors assessed the impact of AI on demand for traditional software services.

The IT index .NIFTYIT was down 5.8% at 29,310.25 points. If losses hold, this would be its worst day since February 4.

India's largest software exporter Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS slumped 9% and led losses, while Bengaluru-based Infosys INFY.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS dropped 4.3% and 3.7%, respectively.

(Reporting by Vivek Kumar M; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

(([email protected];))

June 1 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• WIPRO - WILL ACQUIRE AN ADDITIONAL 20% STAKE IN AGGNE GLOBAL INC

• WIPRO - PURCHASE CONSIDERATION OF USD 28.5 MILLION

Source text: ID:nnAZN4SZURY

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BENGALURU, May 29 (Reuters) - Infosys INFY.NS CEO Salil Parekh's annual pay rose 2.5% to 826 million rupees ($8.69 million) in fiscal year 2026, India's second-largest IT company said in its annual report on Friday.

Parekh took home a fixed salary of 79.7 million rupees and bonuses worth 233.5 million rupees. The report did not disclose any information on whether Parekh's term as CEO would be extended, even as his current five-year stint is set to end in March next year. He is already the longest-serving non-founder CEO at the IT company.

Parekh exercising his stock options accounted for the lion's share of his compensation for the year at 507.5 million rupees.

He had earned $9.44 million in fiscal 2025 and $7.9 million in fiscal 2024. The dip in the dollar figure for fiscal 2026 is because the Indian rupee fell 9.88% versus the U.S. currency during the year.

India's $315-billion IT sector is facing another year of slowing growth as AI-linked disruption drives clients to rethink their tech spends. Earlier this month, Indian IT stocks fell to their lowest point in three years after OpenAI announced a new services-led venture.

For ‌fiscal ⁠2027, Infosys last month forecast revenue growth between 1.5% and 3.5% in constant currency terms, which was lower than analysts' estimated range of at least 2% to 4%. For fiscal 2026, Infosys reported a revenue growth of 3.1% in constant currency terms, in line with estimates of 3% to 3.5%.

K Krithivasan, CEO of Infosys' larger rival Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS, earned $2.96 million for fiscal 2026, while HCLTech HCLT.NS and Wipro WIPR.NS have not released their annual reports.

($1 = 95.0000 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Sai Ishwarbharath B; Editing by Jonathan Ananda)

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May 28 (Reuters) - Wipro Ltd WIPR.NS:

• EXPANDS PARTNERSHIP WITH SERVICENOW TO IMPLEMENT AGENTIC AI WORKFLOWS

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