Thales has added India to its network of global corporate research centres, opening a new research and technology unit inside its engineering competence centre in Bengaluru on 17 February 2026. The launch came during the week of the India AI Impact Summit and was tied to the India France Year of Innovation 2026. It makes India one of only five countries where the group runs corporate level research.
Thales is a French technology group working across aerospace, defence, security and digital identity. It employs more than 83,000 people in 68 countries, posted sales of €20.6 billion in 2024 and invests more than €4 billion a year in research and development. Its other corporate research laboratories are in France, the United Kingdom, Canada and Singapore, and the Bengaluru unit now sits alongside them.
What the centre will do
The centre will focus on real time embedded software, edge computing and embedded AI, building on open source hardware concepts. It is also meant to drive open innovation in hardware by working with start ups, industry partners and universities. Cybersecurity and future connectivity are part of its brief. A dedicated research team that includes Masters and PhD scholars staffs the unit, though Thales has not disclosed a headcount. The company has linked the work to India’s push for self reliance and to its own Make in India, Innovate in India and Export from India goals.
Why Bengaluru
Thales already runs one of its two Indian engineering competence centres in Bengaluru, delivering hardware, software and systems engineering for civil and defence customers. Placing the research unit inside that site lets researchers work next to engineers who build products. The city’s mix of defence and aerospace firms, chip and embedded systems talent, and strong academic institutions also suits research in embedded AI. Karnataka’s minister for electronics, IT and biotechnology and the Consul General of France in Bengaluru attended the launch.
Thales’s India footprint
Thales has been present in India since 1953 and is headquartered in Noida, with offices in Delhi, Gurugram, Bengaluru and Mumbai, among other cities. More than 2,300 people work with the group and its joint ventures in the country. Its second engineering competence centre, in Noida, handles cyber and digital work, and a maintenance, repair and overhaul facility in Gurugram services avionics for Indian airlines. Ankur Kanaglekar is vice president for India.
What it signals
Global engineering centres in India have long handled delivery work, while core research stayed closer to headquarters. Thales giving Bengaluru the same corporate research status as its labs in France and the United Kingdom shows that pattern loosening, particularly in defence and aerospace, where embedded AI and edge computing are becoming central to new systems.
At a glance
- Home country: France
- Sector: Aerospace and Aviation
- City: Bengaluru
- Date: February 2026
- Status: Operational
- Scale: Research team including Masters and PhD scholars, one of five Thales corporate research centres worldwide
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