Sterlite Technologies (STL) expects artificial intelligence-led data centre expansion to become one of the biggest long-term growth drivers for the global optical fibre industry, as hyperscalers and telecom operators ramp up investments in next-generation digital infrastructure.
During its Q4FY26 earnings call, the company highlighted growing opportunities emerging from AI infrastructure, hyperscale data centres, quantum-safe networks and high-speed connectivity systems.
“Data centres are simply the fastest-growing driver for fibre demand,” STL Managing Director Ankit Agarwal said during the call. “This is not just a matter of scale. It’s a step change in fibre intensity.”
The company said AI workloads are rapidly transforming global data centre architecture, driving a massive increase in demand for optical fibre connectivity. According to STL, GPU networks are evolving from 400G to 800G and eventually to 1.6-terabit systems, where copper-based infrastructure becomes inadequate and optical fibre becomes essential.
“AI workloads are creating dense fibre interconnections, exponentially increasing fibre per rack and every new data centre adds multiplies this demand,” Agarwal said.
STL believes this structural shift could create a multi-year growth cycle for optical connectivity infrastructure globally. The company pointed out that hyperscale data centre capacity in North America is expected to nearly double from 60 gigawatts in 2025 to around 115 gigawatts by 2030, while hyperscaler capex could touch $762 billion over the same period.
To capitalise on this opportunity, STL recently launched “Neuralis”, its AI-era data centre connectivity portfolio targeted at hyperscalers and cloud companies. The platform includes pre-terminated fibre trunks, high-density arrays and intelligent enclosures designed to support massive GPU clusters and faster deployment cycles.
“With our Neuralis end-to-end AI-DC portfolio, STL is uniquely positioned to capture this multiyear structural growth opportunity,” Agarwal said.
The company added that local manufacturing capabilities in South Carolina would strengthen its position among US hyperscalers and next-generation cloud providers.
India’s fast-growing data centre ecosystem is also emerging as a major opportunity for STL. The company expects India’s installed data centre capacity to increase nearly fivefold from 1.4 GW in 2025 to 8 GW by 2030, supported by investments from global technology giants and Indian conglomerates.
“You would have read recently in news about the tremendous updates in Vizag as well,” Agarwal said, referring to the growing data centre investments in Andhra Pradesh.
STL said investments by companies such as Google, Microsoft, Reliance and Adani are accelerating the country’s digital infrastructure buildout. The company added that supportive government policies, tax incentives and power infrastructure are further boosting the sector.
“This is not a cyclical uptick. It is a durable high visibility growth opportunity playing out right here in our home market in India,” Agarwal said.
The company also outlined progress in advanced optical technologies linked to AI infrastructure and semiconductor-grade connectivity systems. STL launched India’s first Hollow Core Fibre cable, which the company claims can reduce latency by 35% to 40%.
“As per current data, the Hollow Core Fibre is expected to reduce the latency between 35% to 40% in the network, which will be a huge breakthrough,” Agarwal noted.
The technology is designed to support ultra-high bandwidth applications ranging from 800G to 1.6-terabit networks, which are increasingly becoming critical for AI-driven data centres and high-performance computing systems.
Alongside this, STL is also developing Multi-Core Fibre technology that can deliver four to seven times higher capacity within the same physical footprint. The company said the technology would be relevant for AI-led data centres, long-haul 5G networks and quantum-safe communication systems.
“We have shown strong capability enabling India’s first quantum key distribution over multi-core,” Agarwal said.
The company’s commentary also highlighted growing focus on cybersecurity-oriented infrastructure. STL said quantum-safe networking technologies would become increasingly important as enterprises and governments invest in secure communication infrastructure.
Financially, STL expects its enterprise and data centre segment to become a significantly larger contributor to overall revenues. Chief Financial Officer Ajay Jhanjhari said the segment, which currently contributes around 19% of revenue, could rise to nearly 30% in FY27.
“With accelerating AI data centre investments and pipeline visibility, we expect the Enterprise and Data Centre segment to scale up to 30% of revenues in the current fiscal,” Jhanjhari said.
The company added that it remains focused on securing long-term contracts with telecom operators, hyperscalers and data centre companies globally rather than participating aggressively in spot markets.
“We are very, very focused on the longer-term contracts rather than playing in the spot market or trying to make a quick buck,” Agarwal said.
