India Bets $200 Billion on Becoming an AI Superpower

When Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI’s Sam Altman, and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei all land in the same city on the same week, something significant is happening. This isn’t Davos or San Francisco—it’s Bengaluru, and India is making its intentions clear: it wants to be a global AI powerhouse.

“India has 100 million weekly active ChatGPT users, second only to the U.S. Indians also account for the most students using ChatGPT globally.” — Sam Altman, OpenAI CEO

A $200 Billion Ambition

India’s tech minister Ashwini Vaishnaw didn’t mince words at the opening of the four-day AI Impact Summit. The country is targeting over $200 billion in AI infrastructure investment by 2028. It’s an audacious goal, but the early signs suggest the market is listening.

Blackstone has already committed $600 million to Indian AI startup Neysa, with plans to deploy more than 20,000 GPUs. The Adani conglomerate pledged $100 billion to build AI data centers powered by renewable energy by 2035—a move that could cascade into an additional $150 billion in related investments across server manufacturing, electrical infrastructure, and sovereign cloud platforms.

OpenAI’s strategic response came quickly. The company announced it will open two new offices in Bengaluru and Mumbai, and partnered with the Tata group to deploy 100 megawatts of compute capacity with an eye toward scaling to 1 gigawatt. It’s a significant commitment from a company that has been methodically expanding its global footprint.

The Infrastructure Race

AMD is teaming up with Tata Consultancy Services to develop rack-scale AI infrastructure based on its “Helios” platform. Meanwhile, Anthropic is opening its first India office in Bengaluru and partnering with IT giant Infosys to deploy Claude models to Indian enterprises, starting with the telecommunications sector.

The domestic players aren’t sitting idle. Indian AI lab Sarvam released two new open-sourced models—Sarvam 30B and Sarvam 105B—and announced partnerships with Qualcomm, HMD, and Bosch to deploy its AI models across smartphones, feature phones, cars, laptops, and smart glasses. The company also teased Sarvam Kaze, its upcoming smart glasses product.

“250 million young people in India should be selling AI-based products and services to the rest of the world.” — Vinod Khosla, Khosla Ventures

The Workforce Question

Not all the summit’s messages were celebratory. HCL CEO Vineet Nayyar warned that Indian IT companies will focus on profits rather than job creation—a stark admission as fears of AI disruption ripple through the sector. Indian IT stocks have already dipped on concerns that AI could upend the country’s massive IT services industry.

Vinod Khosla went further, predicting that IT services and BPOs could “almost completely disappear” within five years due to AI. It’s a sobering forecast for an industry that has been India’s economic engine for decades.

The government’s response has been to double down on state-backed investment. India earmarked $1.1 billion for its state-backed venture capital fund, which will invest in AI and advanced manufacturing startups. The message is clear: India intends to control its own AI destiny rather than simply serving as a back office for Western tech companies.

What Comes Next

The summit’s attendance list reads like a who’s who of global AI leadership. Alongside Pichai, Altman, and Amodei, the event drew Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani, and heads of state including Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron.

For India, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The country is attempting to thread a needle: attracting massive foreign investment while building domestic capability, embracing AI’s productivity gains while managing workforce disruption, and positioning itself as a global AI hub while maintaining strategic autonomy.

The coming years will reveal whether this $200 billion bet pays off. But one thing is already clear: the global AI landscape is shifting, and India has decided it won’t be left behind.

This article was reported by the ArtificialDaily editorial team. For more information, visit TechCrunch.