Airtel CEO Sharat Sinha: AI Data Centres Crucial in 2026

In 2025, the digital infrastructure sector experienced one of its most transformative years yet. As cloud, AI and edge technologies converged, the data centre emerged as a core enabler of global competitiveness rather than a mere utility.

Sharat Sinha, CEO of Airtel Business, captures this shift: 2025 was “more than just another year of digital progress and marked a decisive leap as technology continued to accelerate the creation of a borderless digital ecosystem, where breakthrough innovations fostered transformative cross-border collaborations, driving new models of growth for enterprises worldwide”, he says.

Seamless, high-performance connectivity now defines the modern enterprise’s ability to scale.

As Sharat explains: “Today, seamless and secure connectivity has become the foundation that is enabling organisations to scale, compete and lead on the global stage, powered by robust physical infrastructure such as fibre and subsea cables, as well as resilient cloud and edge technologies.”

Subsea systems: Extending the reach of data

Supporting the scalable digital fabric are submarine cables, which carry almost all intercontinental traffic and enable multi-region data synchronisation. Sharat describes these investments as foundational: “Submarine cables with their next-generation fibre and network architecture will continue to serve as the backbone of global connectivity, carrying nearly all intercontinental data traffic.”

According to Sharat, Airtel’s latest cable projects will “enable greater internet capacity and speed, benefiting not only local enterprises but also enhancing international data flows across continents”. These initiatives make India a key junction for global data exchange.

“We have been championing this international data flow by making Asia, especially India, an anchor for international data flows, especially in routes between South-East Asia, Africa and Europe,” Sharat explains. “We have brought global cable systems like SEA-ME-WE-6 and 2Africa Pearls home to Indian shores this year.”

For data centre operators, these global routes offer new opportunities for interconnection, redundancy and cross-market expansion – particularly in edge and hyperscale environments.

Sustainability as the new infrastructure imperative

Sustainability is now integral to data centre strategy, influencing investment models and technical design.

As Sharat notes: “In addition to future-ready networks that maximise business value, sustainable data centres and AI-ready cloud platforms that offer flexible, secure and sovereign service are also emerging as standards for enterprise growth.”

He adds, “Leading investments in purpose-built data centre facilities that are sustainable and renewable energy-powered are therefore taking predominance as the new benchmark for ensuring data centre energy efficiency and environmental responsibility.”

This emphasis aligns with global carbon-reduction goals and a growing preference for colocation facilities powered by clean energy. In regions such as India, where digital infrastructure expansion continues rapidly, Airtel’s commitment to scalable, renewable-backed facilities sets a clear industry standard.

Outlook 2026: AI, agility and security

Looking to 2026, intelligent and adaptive infrastructure will define the data centre’s role in enterprise transformation. “As enterprises worldwide look to 2026 and beyond, they will need partners who will harness intelligent, secure and sustainable digital infrastructure to power their always-on collaboration and innovation,” says Sharat.

That mission shapes Airtel Business’s strategy. “At Airtel Business, our ambition is to lead this new era of global connectivity by combining our diversified subsea and terrestrial networks with AI-ready cloud, sustainable data centres and high-security,” he explains.

An integrated digital foundation, Sharat concludes, will “enable enterprises to innovate with confidence in a world where connectivity has become the foundation of competitiveness.”

For the data centre industry, this convergence of sustainability, subsea capacity and cloud-native intelligence signals the blueprint for the next generation of global digital infrastructure.