India's AI Mission Receives 18,000 GPU Bids in Second Round, Boosting Indigenous AI Development

India's AI Mission Gains Momentum with Second Round of GPU Tenders

The Indian government's ambitious IndiaAI Mission has entered its second phase, receiving bids for 18,000 Graphics Processing Units (GPUs) in its latest tender round. This development marks a significant step towards enhancing India's artificial intelligence capabilities and fostering indigenous AI development 1

1

.

Bid Details and Shortlisted Companies

IndiaAI CEO Abhishek Singh revealed that while 18,000 GPUs were proposed, approximately 15,000 are expected to qualify after technical evaluations and commercial bid openings 1

1

. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has shortlisted seven companies for this round, including partners of major cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Oracle 2

2

3

3

.

The shortlisted firms are:

1. Netmagic IT Services (NTT Global Data Centers & Cloud Infrastructure India)
2. Cyfuture India
3. Sify Digital Services
4. Vensysco Technologies
5. Locuz Enterprise Solutions
6. Yotta Data Services
7. Ishan Infotech

These companies were invited to present their technical proposals on May 14, 2023 2

2

.

GPU Offerings and Partnerships

Some companies have disclosed details of their bids:

• Vensysco Technologies, partnering with AWS, offered 2,300 GPUs, including 2,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, 100 AWS Trainium 1 GPUs, and 200 AWS Inferentia 2 GPUs 2

  2

  .
• Yotta Data Services proposed Nvidia Blackwell B200s in this round, having already offered 8,192 Nvidia H100 GPUs and 1,024 Nvidia L40S GPUs in the first round 1

  1

  .
• Cyfuture India placed orders for 1,184 GPUs, including various models from Nvidia, AMD, and Intel 2

  2

  .

IndiaAI Mission Overview and Progress

Launched in January 2023 with a budget of Rs 10,000 crore ($1.2 billion), the IndiaAI Mission aims to bolster India's AI infrastructure and promote the development of local language models 1

1

4

4

. The mission has already made significant strides:

• The first round of GPU tenders concluded with 14,517 GPUs offered at L1 rates, surpassing the initial target of 10,000 GPUs 1

  1

  .
• Over 230 applications have been received for building India-specific large language models (LLMs) and small language models (SLMs) 1

  1

  .
• More than 30,000 GPU requests are currently in the pipeline 1

  1

  .

Future Outlook and Challenges

As the third round of GPU tenders opens, some companies are planning to bid for more advanced GPU versions 1

1

5

5

. However, a report by the Takshashila Institution has raised concerns about potential underutilization of the compute capacity due to stringent criteria for startups and bureaucratic processes 5

5

.

The IndiaAI Mission continues to push forward, aiming to create a robust AI ecosystem in India that supports startups, academics, and research organizations. With its focus on developing affordable AI infrastructure and indigenous AI models, India is positioning itself as a significant player in the global AI landscape 4

4

.