Waaree, Netweb, Tata Power, Sterlite Tech among 42 stocks in Goldman Sachs’ India AI Enablers portfolio

Goldman Sachs has come out with a list of 42 stocks that form part of its India AI Enablers Portfolio. The list included Waaree Energies Ltd, Netweb Technologies India Ltd, Tata Power Company Ltd, Kaynes Technologies India Ltd, Syrma SGS Technology Ltd, Adani Enterprises Ltd,  NTPC Green Energy Ltd, Sterlite Technologies Ltd,  Anant Raj and GE Vernova T&D India, among others. These companies have visible revenue generation, order-book pipelines, capital commitments and partnerships across the AI-related supply chain spanning power, semiconductors and data centres, with a combined listed market value of $670 billion, the foreign brokerage said.

"AI Enablers are the single-best-performing pocket in India in 2026, up 60 per cent YTD, versus a 12 per cent decline in Nifty over the same period. The cohort has outstripped returns from small/midcap indices, suggesting that the outperformance reflects genuine, idiosyncratic AI-driven strength rather than a broad-based size premium," Goldman Sachs said.

AI-related revenue disclosure

The foreign brokerage said while hard disclosures on AI-related revenue and investments are still scarce among Indian corporates, textual data from management calls has been more revealing.

"Mentions of ‘AI’ in management commentaries have risen sharply over the past two years, not just in Information Technology (IT), but increasingly across other sectors as well, signaling broadening of adoption across corporate India," Goldman Sachs said.

Simultaneously, it said, earnings calls are surfacing a new infrastructure-specific vocabulary: data centers, power purchase agreements, fiber infrastructure, transformers, switchgear, uptime, substation, hyperscale, NVIDIA, GPU, OSAT, data lake, among many other such words. 

"This textual shift, occurring well ahead of hard financial disclosures, creates an opportunity for a systematic, bottom-up screen of the entire listed market," the brokerage said.

The majority of the $670 billion market cap is concentrated in data center operators ($billion), followed by power equipment ($100 billion), power generation ($50 billion) and power transmission ($45 billion).

Stock price rally Goldman Sachs said much of the price rally that AI Enablers saw in 2026 was driven by prices catching up to earnings that have steadily grown since 2025. Cumulatively since 2025, earnings has driven the returns, not multiple expansion. 

Earnings upgrades AI Enablers have seen 2027 EPS estimates upgraded 22 per cent YTD in 2026, while the broader Nifty 500 has been cut 2% over the same period. Data center hardware led with a 95 per cent upgrade, followed by power equipment (15 per cent) and semiconductor materials (8 per cent). Having said that, upgrades have not been broad-based, with cuts in data center developers (down 15 per cent YTD) and power generation (down 14 per cent).

Capex cycle AI Enablers are undergoing a strong capex upcycle in 2026, with capex growth accelerating to 65 per cent in 2026, up from 18 per cent in 2025, per consensus estimates. Consequently, Nifty 500 capex growth is set to more than double to 16 per cent in 2026 from 7 per cent in 2025, with AI Enablers contributing 6pp of the growth, driven by power generation, power transmission, data center operators and OSATs.

"Looking ahead, consensus sees capex growth moderating to 12 per cent in 2027, still above the market, while the cohort remains free-cash-flow-positive, supported by strong revenue growth," Goldman Sachs said.

Valuations Goldman Sachs said AI Enablers trade at an 85 per cent premium to the MSCI India index and a 36x forward PE, near the top-end of their five-year range of 28-39 times. 

"While on an absolute basis, multiples look elevated, the premium disappears after adjusting for their stronger growth profile. Their PEG ratio of 1.3 times is slightly below the broader MSCI India index at 1.4 times," it said.