Global companies are building, expanding and betting big on India. The numbers from the first five months of 2026 alone tell a compelling story.
9,500+ global jobs announced across new GCCs. $1B+ in potential revenue creation. 160+ new mega GCCs expected over the next five years. $110B+ direct revenue target for the GCC sector by 2030.
But at Airopa, the story we find most significant is not the US giants. It is the European ones.
The January–May 2026 GCC announcements include names that matter directly to European mid-caps: UBS (Switzerland, +2,000 in Hyderabad for banking tech and AI), Zurich Insurance (Switzerland, Hyderabad, insurance tech and cybersecurity), HEINEKEN (Netherlands, Hyderabad, global business services and supply chain), Lonza (Switzerland, Hyderabad, biopharma R&D and digital operations) and Stolt Nielsen (UK, Hyderabad, logistics tech, DevOps and AI).
These are not Silicon Valley giants hedging their engineering bets. These are European industrial and financial organisations with exactly the same profile as the companies Airopa works with — mid-to-large cap, domain-heavy, engineering-hungry, and cost-aware.
The data confirms what we see every day on the ground: Hyderabad is the fastest-growing GCC destination in India, not Bengaluru. The reasons are structural, not coincidental.
Western Union chose Hyderabad for payments tech and AI. LPL Financial chose Hyderabad for wealthtech and data analytics. Regeneron chose Hyderabad for computational biology and genomics. Southwest Airlines chose Hyderabad for aviation tech, ML and cybersecurity.
Hyderabad offers world-class engineering talent across cloud, AI, fintech, life sciences and deep-tech, a government that is among the most GCC-proactive in India, a cost base meaningfully below Bengaluru, and a quality of professional life that retains senior talent.
Six structural drivers are accelerating this trend — and all six are as relevant to a Dutch SaaS company or a Swedish IT consultancy as they are to a US bank:
One data point stands out beyond the headline numbers: approximately 97% of Mega GCCs are backed by $5B+ enterprises. This is the current reality — large enterprises own captive centres, mid-market companies rent capacity from vendors.
Airopa exists to close that gap. The Build-Operate-Transfer model lets a 500-person European mid-cap build a fully-owned India engineering team — captive, branded, theirs to keep — without the setup risk and management bandwidth that previously made it the exclusive domain of multinationals.
The question European CEOs asked in 2022 was: “Is India ready for us?”
The question in 2026 is different: “Can we afford to wait any longer?”
The EU-India FTA concluded in January 2026. Nordic, Benelux and DACH companies that move in 2026 will enter India at a 4–26% tariff advantage over competitors who wait for 2027. The window to be an early mover is open right now — and it will not stay open indefinitely.
If you are ready to explore what setting up a GCC in India looks like for your company, start with our complete guide to setting up a GCC in India from Europe.
Airopa helps European mid-caps build fully-owned India engineering teams via a Build-Operate-Transfer model. Captive from Day 1. Branded in your name. Yours to keep.
