Adani's new 'big money maker' plan: Selling data services to Amazon, Google

It's an approach that's been a hallmark of Adani's empire: Pick a hot new industry -- especially one favored by the government -- build the infrastructure, and keep going till you hit the top.

A string of successful bets on ports, mining and commodities helped transform Gautam Adani from a nondescript diamond trader into a tycoon with a net worth of $10 billion.

Now the Indian businessman is setting his sight on what he believes could become another big money maker: Selling data storage services to companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google.

India’s government is weighing a new law that would require data to be stored locally, and his conglomerate Adani Enterprises Ltd. has said it expects to invest Rs 700 billion ($10.2 billion) to build data parks in a southern state over the next two decades.

The billionaire’s hope is to capitalize on demand from foreign technology companies, who are expanding in India as the use of smartphones and Internet surges.

If the proposed law goes through “it will explode data storage requirements, and that will need capacity,” Adani said in a rare interview in New Delhi. “This will be a multi-billion-dollar project that will bring in the Googles and the Amazons of the world.”

It’s an approach that’s been a hallmark of Adani’s empire: Pick a hot new industry -- especially one favored by the government -- build the infrastructure, and keep going till you hit the top. Much like China, India has sought to draw more private investment to ramp up its infrastructure as it attempts to double GDP to $5 trillion over coming years.

‘Nation building’

When the Indian government pushed for gas projects in cities for cooking and transportation, Adani’s group bid for and won many licenses, a move that could make it the biggest player in gas retailing. When Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to develop local manufacturing of defense equipment, Adani quickly built the capacity to supply the military by going on an aggressive shopping spree of defense contractors.

And when Adani’s group decided to get involved in operations of airports, it bid almost double its main competitors in some cases. A clean sweep in the bidding process is set to add six airfields to the business overnight.

“Our main goal is nation building through infrastructure,” the billionaire said. “The Adani Group has always focused on businesses in line [with] the government’s vision.”

Business Standard