Tata Sons FY27 Roadmap Stakes ₹29,000 Crore on Deep Tech

When N Chandrasekaran walked the Tata Sons board through an updated FY27 roadmap at Bombay House on May 26, the headline figure was a loss, not a profit. The group’s newest ventures are on course to bleed roughly ₹29,000 crore (about $3.4 billion) this fiscal year, more than five times an early internal forecast of ₹5,700 crore. The board listened, asked for timelines, and then declined to confirm the chairman’s third term.

That is the real shape of the story. The FY27 roadmap is less a growth plan than a defense document, a case for why Air India, a chip fab and a battery business should keep drawing capital before any of them turns the corner.

The Number Bombay House Could Not Ignore

The May 26 meeting at Tata Sons’ Mumbai headquarters was built around presentations from the heads of the conglomerate’s loss-making arms: aviation, batteries, precision electronics, e-commerce and semiconductors. Each unit walked the directors through where the money is going and when, if ever, it comes back.

Chandrasekaran’s pitch was a broad plan covering the next three to five years. The strategy he tabled a year ago is now seen inside the group as dated, overtaken by heavier capital commitments and shifting conditions in aviation, digital commerce and electronics manufacturing. So he came back with a revised version.

What he did not come away with was a decision on his own future. His current term ends in February 2027, and the reappointment, first deferred at the February 24 board meeting, was left open again.

• ₹29,000 crore projected FY26 net loss across the group’s new ventures
• ₹5,700 crore was the original internal loss estimate for the same set
• 3 to 5 years is the runway the roadmap asks the board to accept
• February 2027 is when a confirmed third term would begin

Why Last Year’s Plan Got Torn Up

A year is a long time in a balance sheet this exposed to new bets. The plan presented in 2025 assumed a gentler loss curve and a faster path to scale in chips and aviation. Neither arrived on schedule.

Air India is the clearest example. The carrier posted a net loss of ₹10,859 crore in FY25, and group projections now point to a loss of around ₹28,000 crore, close to $3 billion, for the fiscal just ended. Integration of the old Vistara and Air India operations, fleet refurbishment and new aircraft have all front-loaded the cost.

Tata Digital, the holding company for BigBasket and the online pharmacy 1mg, carried roughly ₹4,610 crore of losses. Tata Electronics, the chip and iPhone-assembly arm, and Tata Projects added more. Put together, the spread of red ink is what forced the rewrite.

Where the Red Ink Sits

The board did not face one problem child. It faced several, each at a different stage of its spending cycle. The table below sets out the reported FY25 picture for the units that dominated discussion, with the group’s own forward read where available.

The Tata Electronics line is the one to watch. The reported FY25 loss is small, but it sits in front of a capital programme large enough to swing the number sharply higher before any chip ships at scale.

Noel Tata Wants an Exit-or-Persist Rule

The pressure in the room came mainly from one director. Noel Tata, chairman of Tata Trusts and the dominant shareholder voice on the Tata Sons board, has pushed for stricter capital discipline and a clear framework for deciding when to keep funding a venture and when to walk away.

He is not opposed to the group moving into new-age sectors, semiconductors included. His objection is about the high-capex commitment flowing into businesses that remain in the red, and the absence of a firm timeframe for returns. The chairman, in turn, argues that deep tech and aviation need long capital runways before they mature.

The meeting yesterday was meant to give an assurance to Noel Tata on the loss-making businesses and the way forward for them.

That assessment came from a tax lawyer following the proceedings, speaking to Business Today. It captures what the roadmap is for: reassurance, not resolution. Venu Srinivasan, TVS Motor’s chairman emeritus and a Trusts nominee on the board, is another figure whose own reappointment remains unsettled, a sign that the wider governance question is far from closed.

The Deep-Tech Runway Chandra Is Defending

Strip out the boardroom drama and the roadmap is a single, expensive thesis: that India’s industrial future runs through chips, batteries and rebuilt aviation, and that Tata is willing to absorb years of losses to own a piece of it. The chairman’s task on May 26 was to make that wager legible to people writing the cheques.

Dholera and the Chip Wager

The centrepiece is the $11 billion semiconductor fab at Dholera in Gujarat, built through Tata Electronics with tooling support from the Dutch lithography supplier ASML’s chipmaking equipment business. It is the most capital-hungry single project in the group and the one furthest from revenue. The bet sits inside a wider national debate captured in India’s semiconductor packaging roadmap, where policy thinkers argue the country should lead with packaging before chasing leading-edge fabs.

Air India’s Three-Billion-Dollar Year

The aviation bill is the most visible. Beyond the loss number, the carrier is mid-way through a fleet and operations overhaul that the group treats as a multi-year build, not a quick fix. Details on the turnaround sit on Air India’s official transformation updates.

Batteries and the Long Runway

Agratas, the group’s battery venture, and its growing data-centre ambitions round out the spend. None of these throws off cash today. The roadmap groups them as parallel long-cycle bets:

• The Dholera fab and packaging facilities under Tata’s semiconductor and electronics push
• Agratas battery gigafactory capacity for electric mobility
• Air India’s fleet renewal and Vistara integration
• AI-linked data-centre capacity across India

Each item asks the board for the same thing: patience priced in years.

The Listing Clock the RBI Restarted

Sitting underneath the loss debate is a second, quieter problem the roadmap cannot dodge. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI, the country’s central bank and banking regulator) classified Tata Sons as an upper-layer non-banking financial company (NBFC, a large lender-style entity under tighter oversight) in September 2022, a tag that carries a mandatory stock-market listing.

Tata Sons tried to escape it. In 2025 it surrendered its core investment company registration and sought an exemption from the listing rule. Then the regulator tightened the net. The RBI’s revised non-banking finance company framework, issued on April 29, 2026, narrowed the exemption ceiling and redefined indirect public funds in ways that make it hard for the holding company to stay private. Its standalone assets stood at ₹1.75 lakh crore as of March 2025, well above the new automatic threshold.

A forced listing of an unlisted holding company is a different kind of disclosure event from a routine subsidiary float, the sort of timing question that also shadows Reliance Jio’s march toward an IPO. For Tata, the deeper issue is that a public Tata Sons would have to defend exactly the loss numbers the board spent May 26 debating, in front of the open market.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Tata Sons’ FY27 roadmap?

It is the updated three-to-five-year business plan Chandrasekaran presented to the Tata Sons board on May 26, 2026, replacing the 2025 strategy. It sets out capital allocation and turnaround timelines for loss-making units including Air India, Tata Digital, Tata Electronics and the group’s battery business.

Why are Tata’s new ventures losing money?

The newest businesses are in heavy investment phases. Air India is mid-overhaul, the Dholera chip fab and battery plants are pre-revenue, and digital commerce is still scaling. Group projections put combined FY26 losses for these ventures near ₹29,000 crore, against an earlier estimate of ₹5,700 crore.

Was Chandrasekaran’s term renewed at the May 26 meeting?

No. His third term, which would start in February 2027, was not confirmed. The decision had already been deferred once at the February 24 board meeting and was left open again after May 26.

Will Tata Sons have to list on the stock market?

It is increasingly likely. The RBI’s amended NBFC directions of April 29, 2026 closed most routes for Tata Sons to remain unlisted. Its standalone assets of ₹1.75 lakh crore exceed the new thresholds that trigger a mandatory listing obligation.

Which Tata Group IPOs are in the pipeline?

Tata Capital already listed in October 2025. Names floated for future floats include Tata Passenger Electric Mobility, BigBasket, Tata Digital, Tata AutoComp Systems and Tata Housing, with Tata 1mg signalling a possible IPO after FY27 once it reaches full profitability.

By the next board sitting, the directors will want hard dates against each loss line. If the FY27 roadmap can pin those down, the third term and the bet survive together. If it cannot, the same ₹29,000 crore that opened this meeting reopens the next one.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice or a recommendation regarding any security or initial public offering. Corporate and financial figures are accurate as of publication and subject to change. Readers should consult a qualified financial professional before making any investment decision.