Why Coforges $2.35B Encora Deal Signals India AI Awakening
Coforge's acquisition of Silicon Valley-based Encora for $2.35 billion marks India's largest engineering R&D takeover—and reveals a pattern we must address.
While foreign investors pulled $17.5 billion from Indian equities in 2025 chasing AI plays elsewhere, our companies hesitated. India's AI investment (2013-2024) totaled just $11.1 billion versus the US's $470.9 billion. We missed the rally not from lack of capital, but lack of conviction in strategic acquisitions.
American tech giants understand what we're learning: transformative M&A isn't expense—it's necessity. Google's $1.65B YouTube buy seemed reckless in 2006; today it generates $30B+ annually. Facebook's $19B WhatsApp purchase looked absurd until it connected 2B+ users globally.
Coforge's deal creates a $2.5B AI-led powerhouse, acquiring AI-native talent, Fortune 1000 relationships, and years of development time we can't afford to spend building from scratch.
Indian companies must embrace bold acquisitions in AI and deeptech—not as last resorts, but first moves. The question isn't whether deals look expensive today. It's whether we can afford irrelevance tomorrow.
Coforge showed it's possible. Who's next?
