Indian equity benchmarks tracking AI-linked businesses and the broader IT sector diverged in October 2026, giving investors different readings of those parts of India’s market during a month of losses in U.S. technology shares.
NSE Indices’ Oct. 31 dashboard showed the Nifty AI Catalysts index fell 3.79% for October, while Nifty IT rose 18.06% and the Nifty 50 gained 1.95%, all on a total-return basis.
The indexes have different mandates. Nifty AI Catalysts covers companies connected to AI-enabling products and services, including computing infrastructure, connectivity, power, cooling and construction. Nifty IT tracks the broader information-technology sector; it is not an index dedicated to AI.
The Nasdaq Composite fell 5.3% in October. Nasdaq’s market intelligence team said investors were weighing whether costly AI infrastructure projects might generate returns soon enough and how companies would finance them. The Indian index returns show a divergence, but do not establish what caused broader market volatility, a subject raised in earlier EconoTimes coverage of AI hedges during the technology sell-off.
Anant Raj Limited reported ₹115.41 crore in revenue from data center, infrastructure and allied services for the fiscal quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026, against total operating revenue of ₹661.53 crore. The company said its two operational data center campuses had combined capacity of 28 megawatts. It set a target of 63 megawatts of aggregate IT load capacity by the end of fiscal 2026-27.
Infosys said AI accounted for 10.5% of its revenue in the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2026, with AI revenue up 29% from the previous quarter. Total revenue was $5.145 billion.
Alphabet maintained its company-wide capital expenditure forecast of $195 billion to $205 billion for calendar 2026. Meta forecast $135 billion to $145 billion for the year, including principal payments on finance leases; neither figure is an AI-only spending total. Alphabet Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer Anat Ashkenazi said spending was expected “to increase significantly in 2027.” Alphabet has said its fourth-quarter earnings call will be its next update on 2027 spending plans.
