NOIDA: HCL Technologies on Monday reported a strong September quarter, with consolidated net profit rising 21.1 per cent year-on-year to Rs 5,132 crore and revenue growing 11.5 per cent to Rs 35,620 crore, as the company’s push into artificial intelligence-driven services gathered pace. The board also declared an interim dividend of Rs 12 per share, with October 16, 2026 fixed as the record date.
The standout number in the quarter was the company’s Advanced AI business, which clocked revenue of $219 million, up 28.4 per cent over the previous quarter. That acceleration gives weight to HCLTech’s claim that AI is shifting from an experimental line item to a genuine growth engine for the country’s third-largest IT services firm.
Chief executive officer C. Vijayakumar, in his remarks accompanying the results, said the quarter reflected healthy demand across verticals and geographies, with clients continuing to commit to large transformation programmes centred on AI adoption. Deal bookings remained robust, the company indicated, providing visibility into the second half of the fiscal year.
The results land at a moment when the Indian IT industry is being forced to answer a defining question: whether AI, which clients deploy to do more with fewer hands, can become a net-positive revenue driver for services companies rather than a deflationary force. HCLTech’s numbers suggest it can — at least for players that move early and at scale. The 28.4 per cent sequential jump in AI revenue outpaced overall growth by a wide margin.
Margin performance was steady, with profitability holding up even as the company invested in AI talent and platform capabilities. The bottom-line growth of 21.1 per cent, comfortably ahead of the 11.5 per cent revenue growth, points to operating leverage kicking in — the product and engineering businesses, which carry higher margins, continue to punch above their weight in the mix.
The dividend announcement reinforces HCLTech’s standing as one of the most consistent payers among large-cap IT names. A Rs 12 interim payout, announced alongside a strong quarter, signals management confidence that the current demand environment is durable enough to sustain both investment in growth and generous shareholder returns.
Analysts who track the stock said the quarter would be judged less on the headline numbers and more on the trajectory of the AI business through the second half. The key metrics to watch, they said, are the share of AI-led deals in total bookings, the pricing of AI-enabled contracts, and whether the company can carry this momentum into the seasonally softer December quarter.
The results also come against a buoyant backdrop for Indian IT stocks, which have benefited from stabilising client budgets in the United States and Europe after two years of caution. HCLTech’s peers report later this week, and the industry will be looking for a similar AI-led readthrough.
For now, the Noida-headquartered firm has set a marker: double-digit revenue growth, a one-fifth jump in profit, an AI business scaling at a quarterly clip of nearly 30 per cent, and a dividend that rewards shareholders along the way. Investors will decide in the coming sessions whether the market has already priced in the good news — but as quarterly scorecards go, this one was decisive.
