India Adds 15,000 GPUs Under AI Mission; Soket AI, Gnani AI, Gan AI Selected To Build Foundational Models

India is significantly ramping up its compute infrastructure under the IndiaAI Mission, with the addition of 15,000 new GPUs, taking total capacity to nearly 34,000 GPUs, Minister for Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.

Seven firms, including Sify Digital Services and Yotta Data Services, have been selected in the second round of empanelment to supply GPUs sourced from Nvidia, AMD and Intel. “A common compute facility is necessary, few companies shouldn’t have concentrated access to GPUs,” Vaishnaw said, highlighting the strong response to the tender process.

In a big push to foundational AI development, the government has now selected three more startups—Soket AI, Gnani AI and Gan AI—to build Indian large language models. This follows the earlier selection of Sarvam AI.

The new picks were chosen from over 500 proposals. “Whichever focus area these startups select, they have to be among the top five in the world,” Vaishnaw said, adding that India should soon witness a reverse brain drain.

Vaishnaw also shared updates on other key enablers: 367 datasets have been uploaded to AI Kosh, India’s AI-specific datasets repository. Work is also underway to launch a dedicated PhD program in AI research and a large-scale AI talent development programme.