Under its compute program, the federal government is deploying greater than 18,000 GPUs, including nearly 13,000 high-end H100 chips, to a select group of Indian startups that currently includes Sarvam, Upperwal’s Soket Labs, Gnani AI, and Gan AI.
The mission also includes plans to launch a national multilingual data set repository, establish AI labs in smaller cities, and fund deep-tech R&D. The broader goal is to equip Indian developers with the infrastructure needed to construct globally competitive AI and be certain that the outcomes are grounded within the linguistic and cultural realities of India and the Global South.
In keeping with Abhishek Singh, CEO of IndiaAI and an officer with MeitY, India’s broader push into deep tech is anticipated to lift around $12 billion in research and development investment over the subsequent five years.
This includes roughly $162 million through the IndiaAI Mission, with about $32 million earmarked for direct startup funding. The National Quantum Mission is contributing one other $730 million to support India’s ambitions in quantum research. Along with this, the national budget document for 2025-26 announced a $1.2 billion Deep Tech Fund of Funds geared toward catalyzing early-stage innovation within the private sector.
The remainder, nearly $9.9 billion, is anticipated to come back from private and international sources including corporate R&D, enterprise capital firms, high-net-worth individuals, philanthropists, and global technology leaders similar to Microsoft.
IndiaAI has now received greater than 500 applications from startups proposing use cases in sectors like health, governance, and agriculture.
“We’ve already announced support for Sarvam, and 10 to 12 more startups can be funded solely for foundational models,” says Singh. Selection criteria include access to training data, talent depth, sector fit, and scalability.
Open or closed?
The IndiaAI program, nonetheless, isn’t without controversy. Sarvam is being built as a closed model, not open-source, despite its public tech roots. That has sparked debate in regards to the proper balance between private enterprise and the general public good.
“True sovereignty ought to be rooted in openness and transparency,” says Amlan Mohanty, an AI policy specialist. He points to DeepSeek-R1, which despite its 236-billion parameter size was made freely available for industrial use.
