India’s IT services sector is increasingly looking at Global Capability Centre (GCC) acquisitions as a way to strengthen revenue, add capabilities and manage pressure on traditional outsourcing models.
IT services companies have faced sustained revenue and margin pressure due to macroeconomic conditions and geopolitics. At the same time, AI is putting pressure on legacy, effort-based contracts. AI-led deals are growing, but they are not yet consistent or large enough to replace declining revenue from traditional contracts.
Recent transactions include Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) acquiring Best Buy’s GCC operations, HCLTech acquiring Guardian Life’s GCC and Wipro buying Mindsprint, the IT unit of food and agriculture company Olam. The TCS deal is reportedly worth ₹2,000 crore, while the Wipro acquisition is expected to generate about $1 billion, or approximately ₹9,625 crore, over 8 years.
These deals can provide a stable revenue stream because such arrangements typically run for around 5 years. They also allow services firms to acquire capabilities, domain expertise, intellectual property and experienced teams familiar with client environments.
Pareekh Jain, CEO of EIIRTrend, described the trend as a form of long-term consolidation that can deliver productivity benefits. “Such deals help the services companies do more client mining and be in line for other vendor consolidation projects.”
For GCCs, the deals can offer an exit from stagnation. Many centres have failed to develop into strategic hubs for their parent companies due to changes in corporate sponsorship, cost-centre perceptions, limited local leadership and workforce growth without specialist skills. Data from Embark and UnearthIQ suggests that 30% of GCCs established since 2021 have plateaued, representing about 150 centres. More than 500 GCCs are not fully realising their potential.
Phil Fersht, founder and CEO of HFS Research, said the acquisitions reflect slowing organic growth among IT services firms. Acquiring established Global Capability Centre capabilities can provide greater revenue visibility through multi-year relationships.
GCCs became strong competitors to IT services firms between 2015 and 2020 by bringing outsourced technology work in-house. Services firms are now responding with AI-led offerings and their own Global Capability Centre businesses.
TCS launched its Global Value & Innovation Centers business to build and transform AI-native GCCs. Infosys offers an AI-first GCC model covering setup, operations, transformation and carve-outs, and reports more than 100 GCC engagements. Cognizant offers greenfield setup and build-operate-transform-transfer models.
However, greenfield GCCs remain largely dominated by other players. India had more than 101 greenfield GCCs in 2025, while Indian IT services firms held less than 15% of the market. More than 60% was held by ANSR, Zinnov, Aeries Tech and the Big 4.
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