Big Tech giants defy US-India trade tensions, record strongest 12-month headcount growth in India in 3 years

While the previous peak of 37,000 new hires, corresponding to 35 per cent annual growth, was recorded in 2022, it was largely driven by post-lockdown recruitment momentum.

The latest figures highlight how Indian tech talent remains a critical asset for these companies, even amid geopolitical headwinds.

The FAAMNG companies had an attrition rate of about 18-20 percent in the last 12-month period, taking the gross hiring to 75,000 during this period, including replacement hiring to compensate for attrition along with net new additions, the data showed.

The hiring growth coincides with major expansion plans announced by leading American tech giants in India for 2025, despite macroeconomic uncertainties and the challenges posed by US President Donald Trump’s 50 percent tariff on Indian imports.

The active job openings for new hiring, however, remained moderate at 5,200 open roles in the last 4-week period, which is still only 45-50 percent of the peak hiring volumes of 2021-2022, when the open roles used to be about 10,000-11,000 at any given point.

Neeti Sharma, CEO of staffing firm TeamLease Digital said, “While Big Techs have deepened their India footprint through office expansions and strategic announcements, the hiring surge is focused on capability-driven roles rather than broad-based job creation.”

She noted that the hiring mix in FY25 and FY26 has shifted away from scale-based recruitment toward capability-first hiring. The emphasis is on building teams that can accelerate AI adoption, strengthen cybersecurity, and deliver cloud-native solutions.

AI-focused job openings

“Most active openings are clustered in areas like artificial intelligence, cloud, cybersecurity, and product engineering. Routine and support hiring remains muted. In essence, the momentum is in strategic, high-skill additions rather than mass recruitment,” Sharma added.

According to Kamal Karanth, Co-founder, Xpheno, the current active demand from the cohort is primarily in the domains of Engineering & IT, program management, product management and risk & security. The roles currently in the hiring funnel are predominantly mid and senior level roles, he said.

Given the overall moderate pace and selective talent hiring amid a volatile business environment, the standard salary negotiation and hike ranges will continue to remain in the bandwidths of 10 - 25 percent, Karanth shared.

“The current overall slow paced talent action in the tech sector has helped moderate the salary demands from talent and the offer hikes from employers. As the current condition is set to stay for some more time, enterprises in the hiring funnel are not expected to drive the packages up any further from where they are,” he said.

TeamLease’s Sharma, however, expects some near-term hiring softness as companies evaluate their global strategy roadmaps amid US tariff impact that could slow down discretionary tech spending. This may in turn affect hiring by these companies in non-critical or peripheral roles.

Though these companies would continue to expand high-value roles in India, as the country remains a hub for transformation and capability-building.

“India remains central to their long-term strategy, particularly for building AI, cloud, and security capabilities at scale and cost efficiency,” she said.

FAAMNG’s India expansion

Rightly so, the Big Techs are moving fast to expand their presence in India, which may also help them hedge their global positions and access to talent pool.

In August, OpenAI announced that it will open its first India office in New Delhi later this year.

Prior to that, Microsoft leased 2.65 lakh sq. ft. of prime office space in Hyderabad, with a monthly rent of about Rs 5.4 crore. In July, Apple inked a 10-year lease for office floors in Bengaluru worth over Rs 1,010 crore.

At the beginning of the year, Meta announced that it is opening a new office in Bengaluru and hiring for engineering and product roles in the country’s tech capital.

And in April, Google unveiled its new Bengaluru campus, Ananta, one of its largest offices globally.

Together, these landmark moves show the long-term bets Big Tech is making on India’s talent and infrastructure.