The Indian government is planning to set up artificial intelligence computing assessment and curation units in all ministries and departments. This initiative is part of a nearly Rs 10,000-crore plan aimed at evaluating high-end computing needs and resource requirements.
Based on the evaluations provided by each ministry, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will determine the number of GPUs to be allocated. A source mentioned, "GPUs are a limited resource, and ministries with lower computing needs may need to share them on a distributed basis."
Under the Rs 10,372-crore India AI mission, the IT ministry plans to establish a computing capacity of 10,000 or more GPUs and distribute them fairly through domestic data center companies. The cost of procuring these GPUs could be around Rs 5,000 crore, according to Abhishek Singh, additional secretary to the ministry of electronics and IT, who spoke at the recent Global India AI Summit.
Building AI compute infrastructure has become a strategic priority for countries worldwide. Nations are spending billions to secure computing capacity for companies and national security. For instance, China and the US have already started acquiring Nvidia’s range of GPUs, including the powerful H100 chips.
"Unlike about eight months ago, when GPU supply was extremely limited and wait times were long, Nvidia’s H100 chips are now available within a reasonable period of 6-8 weeks. We want to ensure they are utilized effectively," another IT ministry official stated.
Nvidia is one of the few companies producing GPUs, and the high demand for these chips has boosted its market value to $2.16 trillion, making it the third most valuable company behind Microsoft and Apple. Indian companies like the Reliance Group, Tata Group, and Yotta Infrastructure have already signed agreements with Nvidia to bring GPUs to domestic firms.
It was previously reported that Yotta would import 24,000 GPUs, including the popular Nvidia H100s and L40S, in phases. The first batch started arriving in India in March.
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