For Intel, 37 years in India have coincided with several pivotal technology shifts. Santhosh Viswanathan, Vice President and Managing Director for the India Region at Intel Corporation, isn’t one to dwell on past laurels, but does recognise a key role the tech giant played sometimes visibly and often behind the scenes. At the India AI Impact Summit 2026, Viswanathan tells HT that India finds itself at a pivotal moment, needing to define itself as a material market with data centre infrastructure, AI for masses, and PC penetration.
“It’s not one moment in these four decades, but multiple ones contribute to what Intel is in India,” says Viswanathan, noting PC, mobility, wireless connectivity and digital payments, as key milestones. His larger point is about “invisible infrastructure”, the kind that powers UPI at scale, and that approach should shape AI’s next phase. Applied to education, AI can meaningfully repair what he sees as a structurally broken system.
Viswanathan argues that while the West is pursuing a capital-intensive race toward frontier models and “super-intelligence,” India should not attempt to compete directly. Instead, the key is a “horizontal layer”, bringing AI to the masses through scalable applications. Sovereign models for languages and cultural nuance will matter, but so will keeping inference costs low.
Intel’s AI PCs, with the latest Panther Lake and Wildcat Lake chips, enable local processing, reducing dependence on costly cloud compute and protecting privacy in use cases such as education.
Materiality and semiconductors
“India must be material to the tech world, because it means that the market shouldn’t just be large in size, but also in terms of the quality of business,” insists Viswanathan, further explaining that while India generates almost 20% of the world’s data, it hosts only 2% of total server capacity. That mismatch, he argues, is the clearest symptom of India not yet being “material”, and thereby losing a potential lever of tech sovereignty.
In December, Tata Group and Intel Corporation announced a strategic partnership focusing on consumer and enterprise hardware, as well as semiconductor manufacturing.“Semiconductor is a long journey,” he says.
Though Viswanathan doesn’t share numbers underlining this partnership, he insists that’ll “be an outcome of the relationship,” not the starting point. The focus is to support India’s semiconductor journey, including advanced packaging, while building India-centric products and infrastructure across telecom networks, servers, and affordable AI PCs.
“Before investments, intent is the keyword. With CEO Lip-Bu Tan being here earlier, he signalled that India is an important market. We want to support key government priorities. If semiconductors is one, we can’t stand on the sidelines,” he says.
Globally, data centre capacity remains concentrated. The US has 5,300 data centres with an installed capacity of 54 gigawatts, while China operates with 20 gigawatts, and Europe clocks 13 gigawatts. India currently has 1.6 gigawatts operational capacity, with a further 1.7 gigawatts expected to be ready by 2027.
India is pushing to become a global data centre and AI hub, with the Union Budget 2026–27 proposing a tax holiday until 2047 for cloud providers using local facilities. Expansion though remains capital-intensive, costing around ₹40 crore per megawatt, and dependent on reliable power as well as water supply.
Tata Group’s greenfield fabrication plant in Gujarat’s Dholera, has production capacity of 50,000 wafers every month.
Viswanathan points to an already proven strength in talent, R&D and engineering. Next step is scale. India must find significance in servers, PCs and edge compute, large enough that global companies design specifically for it. It’s already happening, with smartphones and TVs. “Until that happens, India remains a paradox — a massive digital society sitting atop borrowed infrastructure,” he says.
“Right to compute” argument
A question Viswanathan asks, albeit not expecting a cogent answer for is — “why is our PC penetration less than 10%, versus China (60%), or the US (95%)?” He insists that beyond infrastructure, semiconductor and AI conversations, India’s AI future will be decided in classrooms.
“Why is the computer still in labs? Key is to augment the teacher, not replace”, he wonders. Viswanathan’s frustration isn’t about technology, but more philosophical. “We cannot imagine a classroom without blackboards or textbooks. Yet, we accept classrooms without computers,” he laments.
Can AI can meaningfully improve education? “Right to compute is must for this generation,” he says. AI assistants in education can help personalise delivery of lessons, help with revision, adapt explanations, translate concepts into familiar contexts, and extend learning beyond classrooms. This will require the use of technology in schools and at homes.
Over the past year, Intel has worked with the government, introducing AI as a subject in more than 6,000 schools covering an estimated 1.6 million students, and also set up over 275 Intel Unnati AI Labs in colleges, focused on data centres, generative AI and data security.
Viswanathan hopes the government can leverage APAAR ID (Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry) to help students buy or upgrade PCs every few years, potentially lowering tax burden to encourage adoption. “A phone is not tailored for education,” he insists.
There is reason for optimism. India has already crossed the first wave of digital education — the video era. “Everyone’s watching a video on YouTube or an app, and making notes,” he says. The next shift, powered by education copilots, can move toward guided and personalised learning. “If 95% households can buy televisions, often large screens, affordability alone can’t be the whole explanation,” he remarks.
This is a clear intent on Intel’s part, wanting to be part of the scaffolding that makes India’s next generation infrastructure stack.