India too, is advancing in leaps and bounds on the artificial intelligence (AI) front. Just last week, the country announced a $1.1 billion boost to its national, state-backed venture capital fund. This funding marks the first major step toward building a national AI infrastructure. The Indian government is hoping to attract more than $200 billion in such investments over the next two years. The AI Impact Summit taking place right now in India is a great example. Tech executives and leaders should use this opportunity to point to affirmative developments and encourage the collaborative exploration of AI technology.
The summit, projected to attract 250,000 attendees, includes lab heads and other superstars from all the major AI labs and tech industry powerhouses. Leaders from OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Microsoft, Google and Cloudflare are present at the invitation, as are heads of state. Among the high-profile speakers will be India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron. Indeed, they are about to provide the keynote address of the entire Summit.
In this way, India is positioning itself as a key player on the world AI stage. The country just hosted the opening of Anthropic’s second office in Bengaluru, highlighting its draw as an increasingly popular base for the continued rise of AI technologies. OpenAI’s moves come as the company announced plans to expand into India with two new offices in Bengaluru and Mumbai. Building for India OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has made no secret about how crucial the Indian market is. With more than 100 million weekly active ChatGPT users, India has emerged as the second-largest market, behind the United States.
On top of all these positive changes, India is experiencing huge growth in private sector investment. Indian corporate conglomerate Adani is just getting started! They plan to invest $100 billion to construct AI data centers entirely powered by renewable energy by 2035. This new initiative will help supercharge an additional $150 billion to ensure that it’s safe to walk. The sectors will include server manufacturing, advanced electrical infrastructure, sovereign cloud platforms, and enabling industries.
As India’s tech minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated, the government’s focus on attracting substantial investments reflects its ambition to lead in AI infrastructure development. He focused a great deal on the country’s determination to become a global epicenter for AI technology. Recent investments are already building the groundwork for this aim.
The Indian AI ecosystem is further enriched by the creative endeavors of aspiring local startups. BharatGen, a government-backed AI consortium, has released their own 17 billion parameter model, Param 2, supporting 22 languages. Furthermore, Indian AI startup Sarvam has released two new open-sourced models: Sarvam 30B and Sarvam 105B. Sarvam has started teasing its first smart glasses, Sarvam Kaze. This announcement is the latest example of the ever-evolving Indian tech landscape.
Vinod Khosla, founder of Khosla Ventures, expressed concerns that traditional sectors like IT services and business process outsourcing (BPO) could “almost completely disappear” within five years due to advancements in AI technology. This feeling is a reflection of the fast changing reality of work that’s being accelerated by automation and machine learning.