The firm announced this development via a post on X, describing it as a significant leap in its mission to establish more of its technology infrastructure in-house.
“We just launched something we’ve been quietly developing—Nathu La, our own indigenously designed server, with all intellectual property held right here in India,” the announcement stated.
It elaborated, “Engineered by our team in Nagpur, optimized for AI inference, and created to power Zoho’s applications, Nathu La represents our most concrete step yet toward fully owning our technology stack, providing direct benefits to our customers.”
We just launched something we’ve been quietly working on—Nathu La, our very own indigenously designed server, with every bit of intellectual property owned right here in India. 🤓
Built by our engineers in Nagpur, optimized for AI inference, and designed to power Zoho’s own… pic.twitter.com/JkvrzkG43Q
— Zoho (@Zoho) June 10, 2026
This launch signifies Zoho’s inaugural venture into hardware, broadening its reach beyond its well-known software products and cloud services.
A stronger commitment to owning the tech stack
Nathu La was developed in partnership with Intel and operates on Intel Xeon 6 processors.
The Chennai-based enterprise, recognized for its Zoho and ManageEngine products, views the server as part of a larger strategy to internalize more of its technology stack, encompassing applications, data centres, AI models, and now server infrastructure.
“We’ve traditionally depended on global OEMs for hardware. Yet, as infrastructure has become foundational, if computing is fundamental, we must take ownership,” stated Ramprakash Ramamoorthy, Director of AI Research at Zoho Corp, in an interview with Moneycontrol.
The company is convinced that possessing more of the underlying infrastructure will enhance performance while decreasing dependence on foreign server producers like Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and Lenovo.
Not for commercial sale—at least for now
In contrast to conventional hardware vendors, Zoho does not plan to commercially sell Nathu La for the time being.
As reported by Moneycontrol, Zoho has been testing the platform for nearly a year and has initiated limited production deployments.
The company currently manages over 10,000 servers across more than 16 data centres globally, with several hundred Nathu La servers already in operation. They expect this figure to increase to around 2,000 by year-end.
Focused on reducing AI infrastructure costs
Zoho asserts that Nathu La can cut power consumption by 12-18% while lowering the total cost of ownership by 20-30% compared to existing server configurations.
The firm recognizes that such savings are increasingly crucial as expenses related to AI infrastructure continue to escalate.
Engineered in Nagpur by recent graduates
An intriguing aspect of this project is its development location. Nathu La’s creation commenced in 2020 at Zoho’s Nagpur facility, far from conventional tech hubs like Bengaluru and Chennai.
To cultivate talent, Zoho established the SETU (Student Engagement for Transformative Upskilling) program, collaborating with engineering students from their fifth semester onward. Over 300 students have participated in this initiative, according to reports.
Today, a significant portion of the hardware team comprises engineers who joined through this program.
Significance of the name Nathu La
The server is named after the Nathu La mountain pass in the Himalayas, which connects India and China.
Zoho reportedly drew inspiration from Intel’s practice of naming technology platforms after geographical sites and mountain passes. Since “La” translates to “pass” in Tibetan, the name Nathu La was chosen.
