NTT DATA takes an advisory-led industry approach across the organization, delivering improved business outcomes from strategy to infrastructure.
The 2026 Fortune Global 500 list reflects a profound shift in the global business landscape. Since 2018, Asia-Pacific has been home to the world’s largest concentration of Fortune Global 500 companies—and in 2026, that leadership continues to evolve.
The region is no longer defined solely by the rise of China. Growth is increasingly being driven by a broader, more diverse ecosystem spanning India, Southeast Asia, and the region’s advanced digital economies such as Australia. Today, Asia-Pacific is not simply where many of the world’s largest companies are headquartered—it is where global strategies are tested, scaled, and transformed into competitive advantage. For CEOs, this presents both extraordinary opportunity and unprecedented complexity.
The rising need for sovereign AI capabilities
Artificial intelligence is moving from pilots to enterprise-wide transformation. Geopolitical uncertainty is reshaping supply chains and investment decisions. Cyber threats continue to evolve, and regulatory environments are becoming more complex.
Global and multinational organizations face a unique puzzle with sovereign AI: They want to benefit from AI at a global scale, but every country increasingly wants AI systems, data, and infrastructure to remain under its own control. NTT DATA’s latest research finds that private and sovereign AI are important to 94% of respondents. But only 30% are prioritizing sovereign AI in a concrete, near-term way, despite nearly 66% of AI leaders citing cross-border data restrictions as a major challenge.
AI leaders are pulling ahead by treating architecture, infrastructure, and governance as strategic requirements. By moving decisively, aligning infrastructure, governance, and operating models early, they are creating a competitive advantage.
The fast-emerging risk of advanced frontier AI models
In 2026, frontier AI models began discovering and weaponizing software vulnerabilities at a pace that materially shortened the window between disclosure and exploitation.
The question boards are asking their security leaders isn’t whether this changes the threat model—it’s how quickly their assessment, prioritization, and remediation operating model can adapt before adversaries with the same capability close the gap.
NTT DATA is a named member of the leading cybersecurity alliances built specifically for this threat— including Palo Alto Networks’ Frontier AI Alliance, CrowdStrike’s Project QuiltWorks AI Security Coalition, and the company’s long-standing strategic alliance with Cisco.
Through these engagements, NTT DATA’s cybersecurity experts work alongside frontier-AI capability and its partners’ threat intelligence to help clients accelerate identification of exposures using frontier-AI capability—before adversaries can exploit them. The company helps them to assess current prevention, detection, response, and remediation capabilities and produce not just a deployment-ready road map and cybersecurity architecture to operate at machine speed but also convert that road map into delivered cyberresilience outcomes, leveraging its advisory and managed services portfolio. This provides the board with a practical plan executed by a trusted full-stack partner to address the risks posed by advanced frontier AI models. The organizations leading this next era share a common characteristic. They are building resilient, AI-enabled enterprises that can adapt faster, innovate with confidence, and compete across increasingly interconnected global markets. They recognize that growth depends not only on technology investment but also on the ability to execute transformation securely, responsibly, and at scale.
Trusted by many of the world’s leading enterprises, NTT DATA takes an advisory-led approach that is organization-wide, achieving improved business outcomes from strategy to infrastructure. The company partners with business leaders to modernize operations, strengthen cyber resilience, accelerate AI adoption, optimize supply chains, and unlock new opportunities for growth. By combining deep industry expertise with practical delivery, it helps organizations navigate complexity, manage risk, and achieve measurable business outcomes with confidence.
NTT DATA’s ability to deliver at scale is built on a unique combination of global capability and local insight. With more than 150 years of delivery experience, $3 billion invested annually in research and development, owned hybrid infrastructure, global delivery capabilities, and the financial strength to co-invest alongside clients,
NTT DATA brings the experience, resources, and long-term commitment required to deliver transformation that lasts. As AI becomes central to enterprise value creation, success will depend not only on adopting new technologies but also on deploying them responsibly, securely, and at scale. From private and sovereign AI to cloud, cybersecurity, and intelligent operations, NTT DATA helps organizations build trusted digital foundations that strengthen resilience and create lasting competitive advantage.
The next chapter of global business leadership will be defined by organizations that can transform technology into business value—and regional opportunity into global success. As Asia-Pacific continues to shape the future of the global economy, the enterprises that succeed will be those that combine ambition with execution, innovation with trust, and global vision with deep regional understanding.
Learn more at nttdata.com.