Tata Group’s profit jumps 52% to ₹1.7 lakh crore in FY26; Chandrasekaran doubles down on AI and Air India turnaround

The Tata Group delivered one of its strongest financial performances in FY26, with aggregate profit after tax surging 51.9% to ₹1.70 lakh crore, while revenue rose 7.8% to ₹16.24 lakh crore, despite geopolitical conflicts and an unprecedented global artificial intelligence investment cycle.

The group’s revenue is now 2.1 times its FY20 level, while profits have expanded 5.4 times, reflecting what Chairman N. Chandrasekaran described in the latest annual report as sustained turnaround efforts across the group.

Holding company Tata Sons reported a 9.1% increase in revenue to ₹42,367 crore, while profit after tax grew 21.8% to ₹31,961 crore. The board recommended a final dividend of ₹1,10,717 per share.

Tata companies generated total shareholder returns of 287% over the past decade, compared with 253% for the Nifty 50, Chandrasekaran said in the annual report. Excluding TCS, shareholder returns stood at 575%.

FY26 saw several milestone achievements across Tata companies.

Reviewing the year, Chandrasekaran argued that AI represents a far bigger opportunity than a threat for enterprise technology companies. “The opportunities offered by AI cannot be captured by simply giving organisations access to AI technology. Enterprises need to organise their data and integrate it into IT systems that have evolved over decades,” he said.

He added that India’s software industry has built its global leadership by making advanced technologies work reliably within the world’s most demanding institutions, making AI “the most significant opportunity yet for enterprise IT”.

TCS has already reached an annualised AI revenue run rate of $2.6 billion in the first quarter of FY27 and unveiled a 1 GW HyperVault AI data centre platform, alongside partnerships with OpenAI, Microsoft, AWS and Anthropic. Over the next three years, the company expects to deploy as many AI agents as human employees.

Beyond financial performance, Chandrasekaran outlined a long-term vision centred on building strategic capabilities for India by 2047. He described semiconductors, AI, clean energy, connectivity and defence manufacturing as the foundations of the country’s next industrial revolution.

Tata Electronics, now the group’s fourth-largest company by revenue at ₹1.31 lakh crore, is constructing India’s first high-volume semiconductor fabrication plant in Gujarat while expanding across the electronics value chain. The company has already packaged India’s first indigenous microprocessor and aims to build capabilities in advanced packaging, semiconductor materials and chip manufacturing.

The chairman also reiterated the group’s commitment to rebuilding Air India, expanding battery manufacturing through Agratas, strengthening indigenous telecom equipment, and scaling defence manufacturing through projects ranging from transport aircraft and helicopters to radars, drones and precision systems.

“A nation of 1.4 billion people, with one of the world’s fastest-growing economies, deserves a world-class flag carrier,” he emphasised, underscoring Air India’s significance. “Rebuilding Air India is a long journey—fleet renewal, training, service transformation, network expansion. Every great airline in history was built over decades, not quarters,” he said, adding that significant progress has been made in the transformation journey.

“We are building for the India of 2047 so that, when she looks back, she finds that the foundations were laid well and in time,” Chandrasekaran said, describing these investments as generational bets designed to strengthen India’s technological and industrial sovereignty.