The India factor in Dell's AI playbook

While the company has seen workforce reductions globally, its India operations continue to grow in AI R&D, infrastructure solutions, and enterprise services. To counter the slowdown in India’s PC and laptop market, Dell Technologies is shifting its focus toward higher-value services and enterprise solutions. While revenue from its PC manufacturing vertical fell by over 21 percent in FY24, Dell Technologies India’s software development unit grew by 18 percent, earning Rs 3,248 crore through global software development, testing, and support, stated a TechCircle news report. Additionally, revenues from Dell’s internal IT support and infrastructure management services stood at Rs 2,734 crore; IT-enabled services like marketing analytics and financial shared services generated Rs 2,384 crore, as per TechCircle.

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This realignment highlights how Dell’s is moving from its earlier core competency of hardware towards services by leveraging India’s talent pool to drive innovation and enterprise transformation. “India is not just a market for us, it’s a microcosm of Dell Technologies globally,” says Alok Ohrie, president & MD, Dell Technologies India. “From powering digital transactions to enabling Generative AI [GenAI] use cases, we’re helping customers across industries realise their digital transformation dreams, and increasingly, their AI ambitions.”

India’s economic momentum is unlocking vast opportunities across industries. “This growth is getting enabled through technology,” says Ohrie, “making it an extremely attractive market for a company like ours, which has a broad portfolio of products.” This portfolio spans client solutions, infrastructure such as data centres and cloud, and advanced security offerings.

With a rapidly expanding digital economy, a deep talent pool, and rising enterprise demand for scalable AI solutions, India is emerging as one of Dell’s fastest-growing AI markets. India’s AI market is projected to reach $7.84 billion in 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 26.37 percent through 2031. Although Dell did not declare India-specific numbers, globally its AI-optimised server orders rose nearly 40 percent sequentially, with a backlog of $2.9 billion at the end of FY25. Therefore, from powering GenAI to building secure, hybrid-ready infrastructure, Dell Technologies India is increasingly seen as a strategic driver of the company’s global AI roadmap.

Focus on AI

Over the past decade, technological advancements—from cloud computing and Internet of Things (IoT) to 5G and data analytics—have been reshaping how businesses operate. AI, particularly GenAI, is the most recent of these. “GenAI has captured our imagination, especially after ChatGPT was launched in November 2023,” says Ohrie. “It has demonstrated how technology can boost productivity, accelerate innovation, and drive business growth.”

The company is building systems powered by Nvidia and AMD GPUs, enabling customers to deploy AI use cases efficiently. These systems support large language models (LLMs), ensuring they are trained on the right data, deliver accurate results, and comply with regulatory standards.

At the heart of this effort is the Dell AI Factory, which offers a full-stack solution, from client devices to servers, storage, and networking, making AI deployment seamless and scalable. “A key driver of Dell’s future growth is its strategic alliance with Nvidia, which integrates advanced hardware, software, and services into a unified AI infrastructure,” says Anshika Jain, senior analyst at Counterpoint Research.

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“When it comes to digital infrastructure, India’s landscape is uneven,” says Ohrie. “There are pockets of excellence, but we’re still lagging in terms of national IT infrastructure capacity.” According to Dell’s analysis, India’s IT spending stands at 0.17 percent of GDP, compared to 0.25 percent in Australia and 0.34 percent in Japan. “For an economy growing at this pace, we’re still significantly underinvested in digital infrastructure,” he explains. “This gap presents both a challenge and an opportunity, to build the digital backbone that can support India’s ambitions as a global technology powerhouse.”

Dell Technologies India collaborates with the government on several platforms, including the income tax e-filing portal and the e-Passport Seva system; it recently delivered a large-scale data centre for the Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), which integrates both GPU-accelerated computing and traditional compute infrastructure.

India driving R&D

Dell’s India arm is also a core innovation engine for the company’s global ambitions. India is one of the company’s largest global workforces and the second-largest R&D presence worldwide, and plays a pivotal role in shaping the company’s product roadmap.

“Dell’s predictive analytics capabilities enable organisations to identify potential failures before they occur, ensuring seamless operations and improved resource management,” says Sudha KV, vice president at Dell Technologies India. “Additionally, our data analytics solutions empower enterprises to derive actionable insights from vast datasets, facilitating better decision-making and accelerating innovation. Our R&D teams contribute significantly to the global portfolio.”

Over the past three years, Dell has invested more than $4 billion globally in R&D, with a significant portion fuelling innovation from India. The India R&D teams are deeply involved in integrating AI, machine learning, and data analytics into Dell’s product ecosystem, from AI-powered adaptive cooling systems in data centres to predictive maintenance and intelligent workload distribution in servers.

“Driving innovation is a key priority across our India business,” adds Ramesh Jampula, vice president, IT and APJC Regional CIO. “Every major product line at Dell is actively embedding machine intelligence as a core component. Our AI Factory with Nvidia is a prime example.”

Make-in-India: Challenge & opportunity

Dell Technologies has long been a committed original equipment manufacturer (OEM) partner in India’s electronics manufacturing journey, having established its first factory in the country back in 2007, in Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu where Notebooks, desktops, servers and all-in-ones (AIOs) are produced. As one of the early applicants and participants in the central government’s performance-linked incentives (PLI) 1.0 scheme, Dell not only met its first-year commitments but also played a key advisory role in shaping PLI 2.0. Approvals secured under the new scheme give Dell the opportunity to deepen its manufacturing footprint in India.

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However, a critical challenge remains: The need to build a robust domestic electronics ecosystem. “Today, the electronics come from outside; that’s the biggest challenge,” says Ohrie. He emphasises that for OEMs like Dell to scale sustainably, India must develop local sourcing capabilities for components and sub-assemblies.

Jain of Counterpoint agrees: “The company has the opportunity to expand its presence in the consumer and education segments, as well as deepen its reach in tier 2 and 3 cities, where digital transformation is accelerating. Another crucial factor is leveraging domestic manufacturing initiatives under India’s PLI scheme, enabling Dell to remain competitive in the evolving market landscape.”

Looking ahead

Dell is aligning its India strategy with several key global technology trends. One is the rise of Agentic AI; Dell’s AI Factory will be central to supporting these AI applications. At the same time, Sovereign AI is becoming important, as countries and organisations look to build AI systems that reflect local languages, cultures, and data privacy needs.

AI adoption in India is growing rapidly across industries like finance, health care, and cybersecurity. Companies are using AI to detect fraud, improve customer service, and manage cloud operations more efficiently. Dell’s infrastructure, which supports both on-site and hybrid cloud setups, is well-suited to help Indian businesses scale their AI efforts, especially in a landscape where data security and compliance are top priorities.

Moreover, the convergence of AI with quantum computing, intelligent edge, and digital twins is opening new frontiers, from drug discovery to smart manufacturing. “Agentic AI and quantum computing aren’t just buzzwords; they’re the next tectonic shifts in technology,” says Jampula. “India has the talent, the ambition, and the momentum to lead in this space. At Dell, we’re building the infrastructure and partnerships to make that future real; not five years from now, but starting today.”