India's ambitious plan to provide access to 10,000  graphic processing units (GPUs)  deemed necessary for the development of artificial intelligence-based applications and models is a "good starting point" as it seeks to keep up with global leaders in the fasy evolving field of AI innovation, according to top investors and technologists. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) Mission of rs 10,372-crore launced would be run on a public-private partnership basis. It will use GPUs as a digital public infrastructure to provide AI-as-a-service.  

This will equip Indian enterprises with their own processing hardware — a precious resource globally — allowing them to develop more AI applications and enabling the country to compete more effectively with the likes of the United States, China, and the United Kingdom, which are leading the race to dominate the sunrise sector.

“The government’s AI mission is incredibly exciting for India and its vibrant startup ecosystem. Investing in 10,000 GPUs and making them available to researchers and innovators will make a huge difference as we aim to build (India) the AI application capital of the world,” Rajan Anandan, managing director, Peak XV Partners, told ET adding that it will provide critical building blocks that AI startups can leverage to “build in India, for India and for the world”.

In addition to the IndiaAI Innovation Centre, which will create and implement indigenous large multimodal models and domain-specific foundational models in essential areas, the mission will offer targeted support for AI businesses.

India presently has over 100 generative AI businesses; yet, investment in the sector has been relatively low. Between 2013 and 2022, the United States witnessed approximately $250 billion in private investments in AI firms, whereas India only received $8 billion.