Gautam Adani bets on AI-led growth as group moves past US legal challenges

AHMEDABAD: Gautam Adani is looking firmly ahead rather than back. In his annual letter to shareholders, the billionaire chairman of the Adani Group said the conglomerate has moved beyond its US legal challenges and is now focused on accelerating growth across energy, transport, logistics and digital infrastructure, with artificial intelligence emerging as a major long-term opportunity.

“The matters related to our US legal proceedings are now behind us thereby allowing us to focus with renewed confidence and belief on the next phase of our growth,” Adani said.

The statement marks the group’s clearest signal yet that it is attempting to draw a line under a period of heightened scrutiny and regulatory challenges. Adani said the conglomerate remained committed to expansion despite the turbulence, adding that its response to criticism had been defined by execution rather than distraction.

“While others debated, the Group built,” Adani wrote, describing the conglomerate as one of the world’s most integrated infrastructure platforms spanning energy, transport, logistics, utilities and industrial manufacturing.

The chairman also pointed to the group’s Rs 24,930 crore rights issue in flagship company Adani Enterprises as evidence of continued investor confidence despite questions over governance and regulatory matters that surfaced over the past year.

A major theme running through the shareholder letter was the growing intersection between infrastructure and artificial intelligence.

Adani argued that the next wave of AI adoption will require enormous investments in power generation, transmission networks, data centres and logistics systems. According to him, digital transformation cannot happen without physical infrastructure keeping pace.

“Before AI can think, energy must flow,” Adani said, highlighting the critical role of electricity and infrastructure in supporting future technological growth.

The group appears determined to position itself at the centre of that shift. During FY26, Adani invested more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore across its businesses, one of the largest annual capital expenditure programmes in its history.

In renewable energy, Adani Green added 5.1 gigawatts of capacity during the year, taking its operational portfolio beyond 19 GW. Adani New Industries also commissioned a 5-MW green hydrogen pilot project as part of the group’s clean energy ambitions.

Meanwhile, Adani Energy Solutions expanded its transmission order book to Rs 71,779 crore, while Adani Power continued work on a massive expansion programme expected to lift generation capacity to 42 GW by FY32.

Digital infrastructure is emerging as another major priority. The conglomerate plans to build a 2-GW data centre platform by 2030 and has signed a memorandum of understanding with Google for a large-scale data centre project in Visakhapatnam.

The group’s transport and logistics businesses also recorded key milestones. Adani Ports handled more than 500 million tonnes of cargo during the year, while the airports business commissioned the Navi Mumbai International Airport and a new terminal at Guwahati Airport.

Financially, the group reported steady growth across its portfolio companies. Consolidated revenue rose 7.4 per cent year-on-year to Rs 2.92 lakh crore in FY26, while profit after tax increased 13.9 per cent to Rs 46,377 crore.

Looking ahead, Adani suggested that funding is no longer the primary hurdle. Instead, the challenge will be executing projects quickly enough to meet India’s growing demand for energy, infrastructure and AI-enabled digital capacity.

As artificial intelligence reshapes industries around the world, Adani is making a familiar argument with a futuristic twist: the race for AI leadership may begin in the cloud, but it will be won on the ground through power plants, transmission lines, ports and data centres.