MC EXCLUSIVE Davos 2026: Long-time India fan Siemens sees huge AI data centre opportunity, says Cedric Neike

• Siemens sees major opportunity in India's AI data centre manufacturing sector
• Global tech firms investing billions in India's AI data centre infrastructure
• Siemens partners with top Indian IT firms to optimize next-gen data centres

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German multinational technology conglomerate Siemens AG’s Cedric Neike, member of the managing board and CEO of Digital Industries, said the company has been “a huge fan of India for ages” and sees a huge opportunity if the country can scale up manufacturing for Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centres, as global investments pour into AI infrastructure.

Speaking on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Neike told Moneycontrol that Siemens is working with India’s largest IT services firms and believes India is at an inflection point in manufacturing linked to AI.

The WEF is scheduled between January 19-23, and will bring together nearly 3,000 leaders from over 130 countries, including 400 top political leaders and 850 CEOs.

“If India is really crossing the chasm in terms of manufacturing an AI data centre, I think it could be huge,” he said. Neike pointed to the growing momentum in India’s AI data centre ecosystem and said the manufacturing opportunity could be significant.

Over the past year, some of the world’s largest tech companies have announced large-scale India plans to build AI-oriented data-centre infrastructure. The biggest among them is Google’s $15-billion gigawatt-scale ‘AI data-centre campus’ in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh, projected to create over 100,000 jobs during its construction phase.

Other announcements include OpenAI negotiating to set up a 1 GW data centre in India, Reliance Industries’ $11-billion joint venture to develop 1 GW of AI data capacity in Andhra Pradesh, Jio’s own data-centre build-out in Jamnagar, AWS committing $8.3 billion to cloud infrastructure in Maharashtra and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) planning to invest around $6.5 billion over the next 5-7 years to build 1 GW of data-centre capacity.

Also, read: Inside India’s AI data-centre boom: What it takes to build one

Data centres are becoming ‘AI factories’

Neike said companies like Siemens are benefiting from the data centre boom because next-generation facilities look more like industrial systems than conventional server rooms.

“These are becoming AI factories. They're actually becoming factories,” he said, pointing to the rising energy density and heat from AI servers, which increasingly require water cooling.

“So what you do is you put data into this AI factory and a model comes out of it,” he said.

Siemens, he added, is involved through electrification as well as digital modelling and optimisation of data centres.

Data centre criticism: Jobs, water, power

Responding to criticism that data centres do not generate enough jobs and consume large volumes of electricity and water, Neike said the value created must exceed the resources used.

“Like all the things, they need to create more value than they consume,” he said, adding that AI can also reduce wastage across buildings and factories.

“The two things we need to do is to make these data centers as efficient as possible… and to produce valuable outcomes,” he said.

Industrial AI is driven by geopolitics, talent shortage

Neike said industrial AI is becoming central across sectors, driven by both supply chain disruptions and the need for more efficiency amid global talent shortages.

“Industrial AI is the core of it and it's driven by geopolitics but it's also driven by the talent shortage we have worldwide,” he said.

He said manufacturers are shifting away from rigid production lines to flexible ones.

“In the past, factories were very precise, repetitive, etc. Now they need to be much more adaptable. And in order to be adaptable, you need intelligence. To have intelligence, you need AI,” Neike said.

Siemens’ IT Play

“We're also working in India with TCS, with Infosys and all of the big players,” Neike said.

He described India as a “zero-one country”, where execution can take time but accelerates sharply once the direction is clear.

“For me, it's been a country where India does something, it takes time. But when it does it, it does it really,” he said.