Some of India's boldest corporate bets are quietly turning into its heaviest financial burden, and the Tata group is now feeling their full weight. In the 2025-26 financial year, the combined loss of the group's 16 unlisted private companies almost doubled to ₹27,854 crore, against ₹15,311 crore a year earlier. The figures, disclosed in Tata Sons' annual report, lay bare just how expensive the conglomerate's push into new territory has become.
Who bled and who stayed afloat
The list of loss-makers includes Air India, Tata Digital, Tata Electronics, Agratas, Tata Projects, Tata Realty and Infrastructure, and Tata Play. The one silver lining was that 9 of these private companies still managed to stay in the black. Yet the pattern is telling: the units the group is backing most aggressively with cash are also the ones inflicting the deepest wounds.
Air India, the biggest worry
Right now, Air India is the group's single largest headache. The airline alone accounted for a loss of ₹22,238 crore. A plane crash in Ahmedabad, along with the conflict between the United States and Iran that pushed jet fuel prices higher and forced airspace closures, hit its earnings directly. As a result, the airline's revenue slipped 10% to ₹71,870 crore.
More money in, more losses out
The annual report makes one pattern obvious: the heaviest losses turned up precisely in the companies that received the most capital. After Air India, the biggest investments flowed into Tata Digital, Tata Electronics and Agratas. Tata Digital, which runs the Tata Neu app, absorbed a loss of ₹4,974 crore. As recently as June, Tata Sons pumped another ₹2,970 crore into the company.
Agratas, the group's battery-making venture, saw its loss widen to ₹1,101 crore. Tata Electronics, which builds iPhones and semiconductors, watched its loss leap from ₹70 crore to ₹1,611 crore. Yet the same company delivered a striking milestone, posting record revenue of ₹1.3 lakh crore and overtaking Air India to become the group's top revenue generator.
Tension inside the boardroom
The steady flow of cash into new businesses and the mounting losses have also stirred friction inside Tata Sons' boardroom. At a February board meeting, Noel Tata questioned the large sums being poured into these loss-making units. It was his firm stance that led to the postponement of the decision to confirm chairman N. Chandrasekaran's third five-year term. Chandrasekaran took charge of Tata Sons in February 2017, and his second term ends in February 2027.
Chandrasekaran's defence
Chandrasekaran, for his part, defended the heavy spending without hesitation. He compared it to Tata's historic gambles, from founding IISc to building the steel industry and entering IT services. In a letter to shareholders he wrote, “They took decades to succeed, but eventually proved to be exactly what the nation needed.” His argument is that in their own time, each of those bets looked risky and even impractical.
