The India Opportunity
Where global talent and India opportunities connect
Week 51 | December 2025 | Volume 6 | Issue 12B
Every fortnight, the world shifts a little more towards India. More and more global companies launch their India teams, new Pods, Capabilities & GCCs, AI roles multiply, and global businesses discover what we've known all along – India needs to be part of your solution stack, no matter who you are, what you do and where you are building.
The India Opportunity is our fortnightly insights publication that connects these dots for both companies (The what, why and how of making India work for you) and top talent (onground developments and insights to help you plan your next career move)!
TOP STORIES
AWS AI Factories Bring Managed AI Infrastructure to On-Premises Data Centers
Amazon announced AWS AI Factories at re:Invent 2025, offering fully managed, high-performance AI infrastructure deployable in customer data centers. The solution combines AWS Trainium and NVIDIA GPUs with specialized networking, low-latency storage, and AWS AI services. AWS claims this accelerates AI buildouts by "months or years" compared to independent efforts.
Strategic implication for CXOs: the cloud vs. on-premises AI debate just shifted. AWS is acknowledging AI workloads, especially large model training and inference. often require data residency or latency guarantees that cloud alone cannot meet. Enterprises can now scale AI without moving workloads off-premises, reducing security and compliance friction. This hybrid model will become the default for regulated industries and data-intensive operations.
Google Wiz Acquisition and Tech M&A Surge, $175B Backlog of Deals Waiting
Through October 2025, the tech sector led M&A with 446 deals valued at $658 billion. Roughly 25% of megadeals involved AI in some form, either AI-driven capabilities or AI infrastructure (data centers, GPUs). The M&A backlog is now $175 billion, more than double the prior year, with executives signaling a surge in large, reshaping deals in 2026.
The hidden lesson: AI-driven M&A is not a bubble, it's a strategic necessity. Companies are acquiring capabilities faster than they can build them in-house. For non-AI companies, this signals that acquisition remains the fastest path to AI competency, but valuations will compress. CXOs should prepare for increased acquisition activity, both defensive (to avoid being left behind) and offensive (to consolidate fragmented markets).
Top Five Tech Firms Could Need $100B in Funding by 2026, AI's Capital Intensity Reshapes Finance
Barclays' head of debt capital markets estimated that the top five U.S. tech firms could require nearly $100 billion in funding by 2026 for AI infrastructure, compute, and R&D. This surge in capital needs, driven by data center buildouts, model training, and AI agent deployment, will reshape corporate financing and debt issuance patterns.
The macro implication: capital availability will become the binding constraint on AI progress, not technical capability. Companies without direct access to mega-round capital or public markets will find themselves in secondary tiers. For startups, this means capital allocation efficiency matters more than ever. For enterprises, expect aggressive pricing from cloud providers as they compete for large-scale workloads.
SIGNALS & OPPORTUNITIES
🟢 Signal | 🚀 Opportunity |
|---|
India First “Made‑in‑India” Commercial Chip Debuts
🟢 The first batch of commercially packaged semiconductor chips has rolled out from the new ATMP facility in Gujarat, meeting the December 2025 milestone under the India Semiconductor Mission. | 🚀 Hardware founders can now design, package, and ship silicon entirely within India, cutting lead times and geopolitical risk while building truly local, IP‑rich product stacks. |
ISRO Sets Final Countdown for Gaganyaan “G1” Launch
🟢 ISRO has confirmed a late‑December launch window for “G1”, the first uncrewed Gaganyaan mission, to validate the human‑rated LVM3 rocket and crew module re‑entry systems. | 🚀 Once proven, India’s space ecosystem becomes de‑risked for commercial payloads, letting founders pitch “human‑rated reliability” to global customers using Indian launch vehicles. |
Apple India Exports Cross $10 Billion in H2
🟢 Ministry of Commerce data shows Apple’s iPhone exports from India crossed $10 billion in H2 2025, putting it on track for a record $22 billion year and ~18% of global iPhone production. | 🚀 “China Plus One” is now “India Plus Scale”. D2C and electronics founders gain a proof point that India can deliver top‑tier quality at massive volume for the world’s most demanding OEMs. |
GCC Revenue Hits $64.6 Billion, Eyes $100B
🟢 India’s GCCs generated $64.6 billion in revenue this year, with projections to hit $100 billion by 2028, marking a shift from support services to innovation‑driven global hubs. | 🚀 You’re hiring from a $65B talent engine. India’s GCC talent is not back‑office; it’s the group architecting global transformation for Fortune 500s, ideal for building core products, not just operations. |
100 “6G Labs” Go Live Across Indian Universities
🟢 The Department of Telecommunications has activated 100 5G/6G research labs across Indian universities, tasked with developing standards and IP for the “Bharat 6G Vision”. | 🚀 Deep‑tech founders can co‑innovate on next‑gen wireless (terabit speeds, holographic comms) years before rollout, securing first‑mover IP and de-risking their connectivity stack. |
Tesla “Affordable Car” Production Plans Solidify
🟢 Industry reports indicate Tesla is finalising tooling for its “Model 2” affordable EV, with India set as a major manufacturing hub for exports to the Global South from late 2026. | 🚀 Tesla as anchor tenant will force the entire Indian EV supply chain to upgrade to global standards, giving local startups a ready vendor base tuned to Tesla‑grade precision. |
Green Hydrogen Hubs” Notified at Three Major Ports
🟢 The Ministry of Ports has designated Deendayal, Paradip, and V.O. Chidambaranar ports as official Green Hydrogen Hubs, unlocking federal funds for storage, bunkering, and related infra. | 🚀 Hydrogen logistics and export‑tech founders now have three dedicated coastal zones to pilot large‑scale projects, solving the “last mile” bottleneck for green fuel exports. |
India‑UK FTA “Services” Chapter Implementation Begins
🟢 Implementation of the India‑UK Free Trade Agreement’s Services chapter has started, easing visa pathways and market entry for Indian tech and services professionals into the UK. | 🚀 Founders can use India as a base to deliver hybrid “on‑site/off‑site” services into the UK with fewer visa frictions, making cross‑border GCC and consulting models easier to scale. |
SPOTLIGHT
Groww: How One Indian Fintech Built Profitability and Market Dominance by Rejecting Venture's Playbook
A $9B public debut and 60% EBITDA margins prove that disciplined unit economics beats growth-at-any-cost in emerging markets.
Groww's November 2025 IPO wasn't just another tech listing, it was a statement. The company raised ₹6,632 crore ($795 million) on a 17× oversubscribed offering, but the real shock came from its financial profile. After losing ₹805.8 crore in FY2024, Groww posted ₹1,861.7 crore in profit in FY2025, a ₹2.7 trillion turnaround in a single year. At listing, the company hit a ₹9,500 crore valuation with a 60% EBITDA margin, higher than most enterprise software giants. More remarkably, 78% of new user acquisition was organic with zero paid marketing, and 81% of its 12 million users live outside metros, in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities like Indore, Jaipur, Patna, and Nagpur. While competitors chased Mumbai's wealthy elite, Groww conquered India's heartland and made it profitable.
But the real genius came next: leveraging that trust into an NBFC license and credit business. Groww now offers margin trading finance, small-ticket personal loans, and investment-linked insurance through Groww Credit Services. With public capital, the company targets ₹50,000 crore in credit opportunity from its existing user base, a seamless upsell into a demographic that already trusts it with their life savings.
For CXOs, Groww fundamentally reframes what "winning in fintech" means. The old Silicon Valley playbook, raise aggressively, optimize for user acquisition at any cost, profitability later, is dead, especially in emerging markets. Public markets now reward disciplined execution, organic growth, and sustainable unit economics. Groww moved from bootstrapped to unicorn to public in nine years without ever burning through capital recklessly.
It proved that in India, distribution and trust beat technology every time. The company didn't invent new financial instruments; it made existing ones accessible, delightful, and profitable for the masses. Global fintech leaders should take note: the next wave of financial disruption won't come from Silicon Valley crypto plays or robo-advisors, it will come from companies like Groww that understand local context, build for local needs, and prove profitability is possible at scale. With a projected 27% CAGR growth for India's wealth-tech sector, expect this playbook to be replicated across Asia, Africa, and Latin America by operators who understand that emerging markets reward consistency, not hype.
Why it matters: Groww demonstrates that profitable, customer-obsessed fintech captures more value and sustainable competitive moat than venture-backed growth-at-all-costs competitors, a lesson that applies far beyond India.
THE GCCX WAY
At GCCX, we turn “The India Opportunity” into your competitive advantage. While the world talks about talent arbitrage, we focus on talent amplification helping global founders build their core teams in India with insights, vetted talent, and seamless ops that just work.
Know founders exploring India teams? Connect them with us at [email protected]. You can also go to www.gccxglobal.com and join our growing network of change-makers turning macro trends into micro wins.
