Tamil Nadu partners with Sarvam AI to build ₹10,000 crore Sovereign AI Park in Chennai

Tamil Nadu Teams Up With Sarvam AI to Build ₹10,000 Cr Sovereign AI Park | AIM

The project is expected to generate around 1,000 high skilled jobs across AI research, infrastructure engineering and governance focused technology roles. The Tamil Nadu government has signed an MoU with Sarvam AI to set up India's first full stack Sovereign AI Park in Chennai, committing an initial investment of ₹10,000 crore to create a state controlled AI ecosystem where data, models and computing infrastructure stay within a trusted boundary. The agreement was exchanged on January 13 in the presence of chief minister MK Stalin, industries minister TRB Rajaa, senior government officials and Sarvam AI co-founder Pratyush Kumar. According to the state government, the project is expected to generate around 1,000 high skilled jobs across AI research, infrastructure engineering and governance focused technology roles. The proposed Sovereign AI Park will be built as a dedicated district that brings together large scale AI computing infrastructure, secure data frameworks, model research labs and innovation clusters. It will also host a specialised Institute for AI in Governance, which will focus on building and deploying AI systems for public sector use while meeting data security and ethical requirements. The park is being designed as a full stack environment where data storage, model training and AI deployment will all take place within Tamil Nadu's jurisdiction. Officials said this approach is aimed at supporting AI applications across education, agriculture, healthcare and citizen services without exposing sensitive data outside the state controlled framework. Previously, Sarvam AI was selected under the IndiaAI Mission to build India's first sovereign large language model and has been given access to high-performance computing resources to support that effort. According to reports, the foundational model would be released next month at the India AI Impact Summit 2026. These models will be trained and deployed entirely within India and will follow the country's regulatory and data governance rules.

Sarvam AI and TN govt to establish sovereign AI park

Tamil Nadu has partnered with Sarvam AI to establish a Rs 10,000 crore Sovereign AI Park, aiming to create 1,000 deep-tech jobs. This initiative will build an independent AI ecosystem within the state, fostering local talent and ensuring data sovereignty. The Tamil Nadu government on Tuesday said it has signed an agreement with Sarvam AI to establish a full-stack Sovereign AI (artificial intelligence) Park. The project will involve an initial investment of Rs 10,000 crore and will generate 1,000 high-skilled, deep-tech jobs, the government said. "This partnership is about building AI that is trained, deployed and governed in Tamil Nadu, for the world," Pratyush Kumar, cofounder of Sarvam AI, said in a statement. "By bringing together compute, researchers, startups, enterprises and government under one sovereign AI park, Sarvam AI, along with the Tamil Nadu government, is set to create the conditions for intelligence to move from experimentation to real-world impact at national scale." Nations are looking at sovereign AI as a means to independently control their AI capabilities rather than relying solely on foreign tech giants. It involves building domestic AI ecosystems, ensuring data stays within borders, complying with local laws, and fostering indigenous talent to achieve digital independence and strategic resilience in an AI-driven world. The TN government said Sovereign AI Park will be a purpose-built district in India that integrates AI compute infrastructure, secure data frameworks, model research labs and AI innovation clusters with a dedicated Institute for AI in Governance. The government added that it will have the capability to operate as a full-stack system where data, models and compute remain within the state's trust boundary, ensuring a sovereign, ethical and inclusive ecosystem for deployment of AI systems. "This demonstrates our strategic commitment to not only adopt but also shape the future of artificial intelligence from a people-first, state-led perspective, while enabling companies and startups that are pioneering the technology," the state's industries minister, TRB Rajaa, said. "With this unprecedented initiative, Tamil Nadu will lead the nation in the scaled deployment of AI. The deployment can be across key sectors like education, agriculture, healthcare and citizen engagement." Arun Roy, secretary, IIP&C department, said the move would position Tamil Nadu as a state where investors can access AI-grade infrastructure and deep talent pools in a single ecosystem. Sovereign AI Park is also expected to serve as a modern "digital sangam" that will develop foundational Tamil-first AI models that link classical vocabulary with modern use-cases. The government said this will ensure that the next generation of AI systems in Tamil Nadu are inclusive, accurate and locally rooted. "Artificial intelligence will define the next generation of jobs just as manufacturing and IT defined the last. By anchoring sovereign AI infrastructure and frontier research in Tamil Nadu, students and researchers from the state will be enabled to become global creators of AI, not just consumers," professor V Kamakoti, director, IIT Madras, said. "This initiative aims to turn Tamil Nadu's talent strength into long-term economic leadership."

Tamil Nadu Partners with Sarvam AI for Sovereign AI Park

The Tamil Nadu government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Sarvam AI on January 13 to set up a full-stack Sovereign AI Park, according to a report by The New Indian Express (TNIE). The project will reportedly involve an initial investment of Rs 10,000 crore and generate around 1,000 highly skilled jobs in advanced computing and AI research. The southern Indian state government says the Sovereign AI Park will function as a purpose-built AI district, integrating model-development labs and innovation clusters, secure data frameworks, high-end compute infrastructure, and a dedicated Institute for AI in Governance. Meanwhile, Sarvam AI co-founder Pratyush Kumar claimed the project would create conditions for AI to move from experimentation to real-world impact at a national scale in India. However, at the time of writing, neither Kumar nor the Tamil Nadu government has shared a clear timeline for the project. "At present, we rely on foreign models, exporting our data and importing artificial intelligence. That is neither sustainable nor desirable," Kumar said. "We need our own AI capacity GPUs, compute, models, and applications, which this MoU will deliver," he claimed further. Kumar also clarified that the investment would primarily focus on compute infrastructure and graphics processing units (GPUs). The Stalin-led government has said the MoU project will be capable of operating as a full-stack system in which data, models, and compute remain within the state's trust boundary. This, in turn, is expected to ensure a sovereign, ethical, and inclusive ecosystem for the deployment of AI systems. The platform is expected to support large-scale AI applications across education, healthcare, agriculture, and citizen services, with academia playing a pivotal role. For context, the project will establish a large data centre near the IIT Madras campus in Chennai, with public data digitised to support evidence-based policymaking, outcome evaluation, and wider use by the private sector. In this regard, a plot of land has already been identified near the IIT Madras Research Park. The institution's director, V. Kamakoti, remarked: "Artificial intelligence will define the next generation of jobs, just as manufacturing and IT defined the last. "By anchoring sovereign AI infrastructure and frontier research in Tamil Nadu, students and researchers from the state will be enabled to become global creators of AI, not just consumers." Further, the state's Industries Minister's Office said in a statement that the Sovereign AI Park will develop foundational Tamil-first AI models that link classical vocabulary in the language with modern-day use cases. This will place a visible emphasis on linguistic and cultural context at every layer of digital intelligence. The statement added that these efforts would ensure the next generation of AI systems in Tamil Nadu are locally rooted, inclusive, and accurate. Notably, the Sovereign AI Park project in Tamil Nadu involves an investment of Rs 10,000 crore, almost equivalent to the Central Government's Rs 10,371 crore outlay under the IndiaAI Mission. The Centre has already selected Sarvam AI to build India's sovereign large language model (LLM) under the IndiaAI initiative, with the Bengaluru-based company becoming the first to receive funds from a pool of 67 applicants. Pertinently, Kumar revealed in April 2025 that a central government body would take an equity stake in Sarvam AI in exchange for the compute resources provided to the company. Now, with the Tamil Nadu government also partnering with Sarvam AI on the Sovereign AI Park project, both the Centre and the southern state are working with the Kumar-led firm on AI-focused development in India. When examining India's AI landscape, recent developments related to the IndiaAI Mission merit attention. In October 2025, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) stated that it had "no specific information available on records" regarding government orders or internal communications related to the AI training programme for one million citizens under the IndiaAI Mission. Notably, this disclosure followed an RTI query filed by MediaNama. In July 2025, Union MeitY Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the Indian government would provide free AI training to one million citizens under the IndiaAI Mission, with a particular focus on Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). Separately, the Takshashila Institution predicted in its State of AI Governance Report that the IndiaAI Mission's compute capacity could remain underutilised. The policy school noted that while the Indian government has created this computing capacity to incentivise startups and support indigenous model development, relatively few projects may qualify for government subsidies. Moreover, the bureaucratic friction involved in accessing resources under the IndiaAI Mission could further contribute to underutilisation of the available compute capacity.