Powering India's AI ambition: A partnership for a dynamic and competitive future
India's digital transformation is moving forward with incredible momentum. This rapid transformation and growth requires a focus on both sustained innovation and thoughtful governance. We have been closely following the Competition Commission of India’s (CCI) comprehensive market study on AI, which seeks to understand the evolving AI landscape in India. We see this study as a positive step towards ensuring a healthy and competitive AI ecosystem for the country, aligning with India’s ambition to become a global AI powerhouse that champions both, competitive integrity and technological progress.
A key driver of India’s tech dynamism, as the CCI market study also notes, is growing access to the crucial inputs for AI: talent, data, and compute. This is evidenced by a competitive market where developers have a range of choices among infrastructure providers - from indigenous players like Utho and DigitalOcean to global ones. Open-source frameworks and models further accelerate innovation. The sharp increase in new players underscores this accessibility: generative AI startups in India grew by over 260% in the first half of 2024 alone.
At Google, we believe that enabling openness, sustained investment, and deep collaboration across the entire AI stack are key for an inclusive future. As announced earlier this week, we are establishing our first AI Hub in Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, through a $15 billion investment over the next five years. This multi-faceted, gigawatt-scale infrastructure investment is a reflection of our commitment to partnering with India on its IndiaAI Mission goals and aligns with the Government’s Viksit Bharat vision. It will deliver the reliable, advanced infrastructure and compute capacity necessary for large enterprises and innovative Indian startups alike to build and scale their own AI-powered solutions. Our legacy of open-source contributions is also shaping the growth of the global and Indian AI community. For example, Google and the World Bank Group are collaborating to build AI-powered public digital infrastructure for emerging markets to create interoperable networks for critical sectors like agriculture, healthcare and skilling. Citizens can interact with these AI-powered services in over 40 languages, even on simple devices. The collaboration builds on a successful pilot in Uttar Pradesh that helped thousands of smallholder farmers increase profitability.
We believe this combination of partnership and investment in infrastructure will ultimately help India secure its place as a global leader in the AI-driven future. We remain committed to being a collaborative partner, engaging closely with CCI, the Government and stakeholders across the ecosystem through constructive dialogue on the study's insights.
We are dedicated to working alongside India to ensure AI empowers every citizen and business. Our shared goal is to ensure India's AI future is inclusive, innovative, and benefits everyone.
