Billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani has issued a clarion call for India to secure its digital and energy future. Speaking at the CII Annual Business Summit 2026 today, the Adani Group Chairman emphasized that in an increasingly fractured global landscape, “sovereign AI” is no longer an option but a geopolitical necessity. He argued that the nations controlling both energy and computing power will be the ones to define the coming century.
Addressing a gathering of industry leaders in New Delhi, Gautam Adani painted a picture of a world moving away from the “flat” assumptions of traditional globalisation. He warned that the global stage is becoming contested, with semiconductors, data, and cloud computing increasingly being used as instruments of statecraft. According to Adani, artificial intelligence is currently being developed behind the “protective walls” of foreign data centres, creating a risk for nations that do not own their own infrastructure.
Adani identified energy security and digital infrastructure as the “twin pillars” of national power in the modern age. He stated that controlling energy is essential to powering an industrial future, while controlling “compute” is fundamental to mastering the future of intelligence. He urged India to build and own the entire AI value chain on home soil to avoid the weaponization of digital resources by external powers.
The Chairman’s remarks come amid rising global tensions and frequent attacks on international infrastructure. By advocating for a self-reliant AI ecosystem, Adani highlighted that data should be treated as a vital national resource. As India continues its rapid digital transformation, Adani’s vision suggests that true national sovereignty in the 21st century will depend on the country’s ability to generate its own power and process its own intelligence independently.
