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India doubles down on AI with Rs 10,000 crore fund, 50,000 GPU ambition

As India accelerates its push into artificial intelligence, the government is making a concerted effort to secure critical computing infrastructure—particularly graphics processing units (GPUs), the backbone of modern AI development. Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary at the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), said the IndiaAI Mission initially set a goal to make at least 10,000 GPUs available to researchers, start-ups, and institutions across the country. That goal, however, has quickly expanded in scope and ambition. 'In the first two rounds of tenders, we secured commitments for 34,000 GPUs,' Singh said at the Accel AI Summit 2025 on Wednesday in Bengaluru. 'Of these, around 18,000 are already deployed, with the remainder expected to be in place over the next two to three months.' With another round of bidding closing in early June, Singh anticipates an additional 15,000 to 16,000 GPUs will be secured—bringing the total to approximately 50,000 within the next six months under the government-led initiative. Private sector participation is also gaining momentum. Companies like Reliance Industries reportedly have plans for the world's largest data centre, while firms including Infosys and several academic institutions are investing independently in GPU infrastructure. Singh said the cumulative availability of GPUs in India will soon exceed 50,000. But he added this is still less than the scale of infrastructure available in Western nations. Industry experts said closing this gap will require sustained investment and collaboration across government, industry, and academia. To democratise access to high-performance computing, India has launched a centralised portal that allows start-ups and researchers to request GPU resources with ease and transparency. The objective, Singh emphasised, is to eliminate bureaucratic delays and ensure that India's AI start-ups and research institutions have timely access to the compute power they need. AI capital Venture capital interest in India's artificial intelligence ecosystem has also rapidly shifted from curiosity to full-scale commitment, according to Prashanth Prakash, Founding Partner of Accel India. Speaking about the state of AI funding, Prakash said early-stage investors are no longer sitting on the sidelines. 'Eighteen months ago, India had barely 20 to 30 AI-focused start-ups,' he noted. 'Today, that number has surged to over 250—and Accel alone has backed more than 40 of them.' This sharp uptick reflects not just a rise in entrepreneurial activity but a growing confidence among investors that India is positioned to play a meaningful role in the global AI transformation. He also observed a narrowing gap between trends emerging in Silicon Valley and their adoption in India. 'The lag that once existed is getting shorter—especially when compared to the SaaS wave.' Entrepreneurs today are much quicker to identify and act on India's AI opportunity. A key enabler of this acceleration, Prakash added, is the increasingly global outlook and structure of Indian start-ups. One is seeing more cross-border founding teams—start-ups with a founder in India and another in the US from day one. Many of these are driven by the Indian diaspora or entrepreneurs who have recently moved between ecosystems. In a bold bid to develop sovereign AI capabilities, the Government of India has also begun selecting start-ups to build foundational models tailored to the country's unique linguistic and cultural landscape. Among the applicants are not only domestic entrepreneurs but also Indian-origin technologists from abroad, signalling a potential reversal of brain drain. Singh mentioned start-ups like founded by a Stanford graduate returning to India, as examples of how this initiative could bring top talent back to the country. The government recently announced the first four start-ups selected for support, but Singh emphasised that this is just the beginning. The number of start-ups funded will depend on their resource requirements—particularly GPU needs—and the available budget. He acknowledged that the government is not under the illusion that all projects will succeed. This approach is similar to what VCs do. India is tapping trusted venture capital firms to help steer a newly announced Rs 10,000 crore fund-of-funds aimed at fuelling innovation in artificial intelligence and deep tech. The initiative includes a dedicated Rs 2,000 crore allocation under the IndiaAI Mission. Prakash of Accel also said that India's AI ecosystem holds distinct advantages that could position the country as a global innovation hub in two emerging dimensions of artificial intelligence—voice interfaces and cost optimisation.