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In 2026, the AI wave, Aatmanirbhar Bharat and commercialisation of sport have been the central themes of this year’s Burgundy Private Hurun India list, which values India’s top 500 privately owned companies. According to the list, these companies have crossed an astonishing $3.4 trillion in value, putting India’s private sector ahead of nations like Canada, Spain or Indonesia’s GDP.
Conglomerates retain positions
Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Bharti Airtel, ICICI Bank and TCS have emerged as the top 5 private companies on the list, with the combined value of the top 10 companies standing at ₹19.36 lakh crore, accounting for 27% of the total value of the Top 500 companies in the list. Amongst them, Bajaj Finance emerged as the biggest value creator amongst them in percentage terms, with its value rising 37% in the last year alone.
IT loses steam, AI replaces them
One of the biggest takeaways is the challenges with the IT sector, threatening its position as India’s services export engine. With global enterprise budgets facing a deep freeze, leading IT companies have seen almost ₹8.5 lakh crore of shareholder value eroded, with demand shifting to AI-led solutions instead. TCS and Infosys have seen their values depreciate by 44% and 36% respectively, even as pure play AI firms- Fractal Analytics, Sarvam AI and Neysa, have made it to the list.
IPL franchisees enter the fray
The IPL is now emerging as an asset class in its own right, with teams being formally featured in the list for the first time. Kolkata Knight Riders leads, with a ₹20,850 crore valuation, followed by Chennai Super Kings at ₹19,550 Crore, while Royal Challengers Bengaluru, Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Super Kings also making it to the list.
Aatmanirbharta gets featured
With the central government emphasising on domestic defence manufacturing, leading defence manufacturers like Solar Industries India and MTAR Technologies being featured prominently on the list. Along with this, companies developing its own engineering expertise have also been featured, including PTC Industries for its specialisation in materials engineering to aerospace giant Skyroot Aerospace as well.
“The 2025 Burgundy Private Hurun India 500 highlights the scale of transformation in India’s economy over just four years. Ninety-five companies are new entrants this year — the highest in the history of the list — while more than one-third of the companies from the inaugural 2021 edition have dropped off,” Anas Rahman Junaid, founder and chief researcher, Hurun India said in a press release.
“For the fifth consecutive year, every company on the list has crossed billion-dollar status, and their combined revenue of US$1 trillion accounts for more than a quarter of India’s GDP. This year recorded 95 new entrants, the highest in the history of the list, while more than one-third of the companies from the inaugural 2021 edition have since dropped off, a sign of how much the economy has shifted in just four years,” he added.
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