Bengaluru Built the GCC Story, but Hyderabad is Scaling Fast

Every morning, Bengaluru’s Outer Ring Road turns into a slow-moving conveyor belt of the global economy. Thousands of engineers, AI researchers, chip designers and product teams stream into glass towers carrying the logos of the world’s biggest banks, healthcare firms, retailers and technology companies. What was once an outsourcing destination has evolved into something far more strategic: a control centre for global business operations.

The numbers reveal the scale of the shift. Bengaluru accounted for nearly half of India’s GCC leasing activity in Q1 2026, with demand on the Outer Ring Road alone pushing office absorption to record levels. Rentals have surged, traffic has worsened, and yet multinational companies continue to expand aggressively.

But the real story is what happened next.

As Bengaluru’s core tech corridors grow denser and more expensive, a second wave of GCC expansion is rapidly spreading across India. Hyderabad, in particular, has emerged as the biggest breakout winner of 2026, attracting a rush of new capability centres from global firms across banking, aviation, healthcare, logistics and deep tech within just a few months.

These companies are no longer building traditional back offices. They are relocating core engineering, AI development, cybersecurity, finance operations, and global decision-making roles to India at an unprecedented scale.

What India is witnessing now is not merely another outsourcing cycle. It is a structural reorganisation of how multinational corporations operate worldwide, and Indian cities are becoming the infrastructure powering that shift.

What’s Happening in Hyderabad?

Western Union opened its payments-focused centre in January, with around 400 employees, focusing on AI-led innovation and platform engineering. 

UBS expanded its presence in Hyderabad in February and plans to add 2,000 professionals, doubling its local workforce. LPL Financial launched its first India GCC and is building towards hundreds of hires across technology, data analytics, risk and product engineering. 

Cohere Health followed with an AI-driven healthcare centre of excellence, bringing together AI engineers, analysts and clinical operations teams.

The pipeline did not slow down after February.

Swiss healthcare manufacturing company Lonza announced a biotech-focused GCC in March to support global R&D and digital operations. Transportation and logistics company Stolt-Nielsen set up a digital innovation centre in April to build logistics products, DevOps pipelines and AI systems. 

Zurich Insurance launched its own GCC in April as a full-scale engineering and AI hub, with end-to-end ownership across cloud, data and cybersecurity.

In parallel, Codec partnered with Trigent to build GCCs across Bengaluru and Hyderabad, focused on Microsoft Cloud and digital transformation. 

But a more aggressive, more specialised set of entries followed over the last two months.

Southwest Airlines opened its first overseas technology hub in Hyderabad, built around ML, cybersecurity and real-time routing systems. Regeneron Pharmaceuticals established a computational biology and genomics centre, deepening its focus on data-led drug discovery. 

Heineken launched a large global services hub in the Financial District, scaling from 300 to more than 1,600 employees. Citrin Cooperman moved high-value tax and audit analytics work into Hyderabad. iSolved built a product engineering centre for HCM platforms and conversational AI.

This wave makes one thing clear. While Bengaluru remains the goldmine of GCCs, Hyderabad is catching pace faster than ever. The city today hosts over 450 GCCs, employing more than 1.35 lakh professionals.

Is Bengaluru Lagging Behind?

The GCC model in India has moved from cost arbitrage to capability ownership. For years, global firms outsourced technology, operations and analytics work to third-party vendors. That model is now being reversed.

Companies are pulling these functions in-house, building their own centres and taking direct control of their technology stacks. The economics are straightforward. By removing vendor markups and managing talent internally, companies can cut costs while gaining tighter control over product development. But cost is only part of the story. Control is the bigger driver.

Modern GCCs are being built as extensions of global headquarters, not offshore support units. Many companies are now adopting what is described as a two-in-a-box model, in which leadership roles in India mirror those in global offices. 

That means product, AI, cloud and engineering heads in India are not just executing decisions. They are shaping them. This marks a fundamental shift in how work is distributed globally.

Hiring patterns reflect this shift. While traditional IT services firms have seen slower growth and even workforce reductions, GCC hiring has moved in the opposite direction. Open roles in GCCs have risen sharply, driven by demand for specialised skills.

Bengaluru still plays a critical role in this ecosystem, but its position is evolving. ORR continues to attract high-value GCCs because of its ecosystem maturity. It offers talent density, infrastructure and large-scale office supply in a way that few other corridors can match.

At the same time, Whitefield and Manyata Tech Park are emerging as competing hubs, particularly for deep-tech and engineering-heavy setups. Companies like Axiado are using Bengaluru for silicon-level security engineering, while National Grid is building capabilities around power grid modelling and energy systems. 

Retail and consumer firms like Abercrombie & Fitch are using the city for global digital transformation and analytics.

Chennai, meanwhile, is carving out a different niche. It is attracting enterprise software, SaaS and analytics-driven GCCs. OneMagnify has set up an AI-native marketing and data platform hub. 

Kaizen Analytix has expanded through acquisition to strengthen ERP and cybersecurity capabilities. The city’s positioning is quieter, but it is becoming increasingly relevant for B2B and enterprise-focused work.

The Centre of Gravity

What ties all of this together is scale. The GCC ecosystem in India is no longer a side story within the tech industry. It is becoming the centre of gravity. The number of centres is expected to exceed 2,500, and the sector is already contributing significantly to economic output.

More importantly, foreign-owned GCCs are now commanding a significant share of India’s tech workforce, reshaping how talent is distributed across the industry.

There is also a geographical shift underway. For years, Bengaluru dominated the GCC narrative. It still leads in overall scale and ecosystem depth. But Hyderabad is now capturing a disproportionate share of new entrants. 

Over the last few years, the city has attracted a large percentage of new GCC setups, driven by a combination of policy support, infrastructure and a growing talent base. HITEC City, Gachibowli and the Financial District are now competing directly with Bengaluru’s established corridors.

Starbucks is planning its first corporate technology office in India, aimed at building in-house engineering capabilities and reducing dependence on vendors. Align Technology is setting up a new manufacturing facility in Hyderabad, building on its existing GCC presence.

The next phase of this boom is already taking shape. These are early signals of what is coming next. More companies are likely to follow the same path.