New Delhi, July 6 -- India's IT sector is in a tough spot. AI is automating the very work that built the $300-billion industry. Clients are demanding fewer billable hours and lower prices. The response? Go shopping.

Indian IT companies spent $4.5 billion on acquisitions in the first half of 2026 alone. Persistent Systems Ltd. snapped up Germany's Nagarro SE for $1.4 billion. Coforge Ltd. bought Encora for $2.35 billion. Wipro, TCS, Infosys-everyone's been writing cheques.

But there's a new problem nobody saw coming. Tokenmaxxing. As AI usage surges, clients are spending more on AI tokens, paid directly to OpenAI and Anthropic, leaving less budget for traditional IT services. JPMorgan calls it "money pressuring budgets available for IT s...