India to procure 10,000 GPUs in 18-24 months to boost compute power for AI companies

The central government plans to procure 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) within the next 18-24 months to boost the computing power available for India, said S Krishnan, Secretary of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

Speaking at TiEcon Delhi 2024, Krishnan said the procurement will be conducted via a public-private partnership and will ensure startups have access to the necessary computing power.

"India is in plans to acquire 10,000 GPUs in the next 18-24 months. This initiative will be carried out through a public-private partnership with the goal of providing startups with the computational resources they need to thrive," he said.

Krishnan said the government will invite bids from the industry under the India AI Mission and provide viability gap funding for GPU-based computing infrastructure.

“Government is currently finalising all the paperwork required for the first phase of the bidding process to procure the GPUs,” he noted.

At present, India has 675 GPUs with CDAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing). The surge in demand for GPU-based servers is attributed to their higher data processing speed compared to CPU-based servers.

Krishnan emphasised the importance of developing India-centric foundation models in artificial intelligence (AI), aiming to mitigate inherent biases that might exist within existing models.

Recently, the Union Cabinet approved the India AI Mission, allocating Rs 10,372 crore for the next five years. Under the initiative, the government will provide funds to support private companies in setting up AI computing capacity in the country, among other initiatives.

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The mission will be executed by Independent Business Division (IBD) ‘IndiaAI’ within the Digital India Corporation (DIC). Startups, academia, researchers and industry will be given access to the AI supercomputing infrastructure established under the India AI Mission.

Piyush Goyal, Minister of Commerce and Industry, said that a supercomputing capacity, comprising over 10,000 GPUs, will be provided to various stakeholders for creating an AI ecosystem.

The initiative aims to fuel the AI ecosystem through strategic programmes and partnerships in both public and private sectors. As per a release, it will help democratise computing access, enhance data quality, build AI capabilities, attract talent, facilitate industry collaboration, and provide startup funding, among others.