IndiaAI Mission: Centre Receives Bids Offering 18K GPUs In Second Round

For the second round of graphics processing unit (GPU) tender under the IndiaAI mission, the central government has reportedly received bids to propose 18,000 GPUs but 15,000 will be offered after the entire process. 

An ET report, citing IndiaAI CEO Abhishek Singh, 15K GPUs will be offered after checking technical qualifications and commercial bid-opening. 

In this round, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has shortlisted seven companies – Sify Digital Services, Netmagic IT Services, Vensysco Technologies, Cyfuture India, Yotta Data Services, Locuz Enterprise Solutions and Ishan Infotech. 

Notably, some of these companies are partners of Amazon Web Service (AWS), Oracle and Google Cloud. Vensysco and Locuz are joining hands with AWS, while Ishan Infotech is partnered with Oracle and NTT-Netmagic is a Google Cloud partner in India.

The shortlisted companies are likely to go for the technical presentation of their proposals tomorrow (May 14). 

The IndiaAI mission will add 15,000 GPUs through procurement and supply which will take the total number of GPUs to 29,000. GPU is a specialised chip that renders graphics and images by performing rapid mathematical calculations that are needed in processing AI.

The Union Cabinet last year approved the IndiaAI Mission with an allocation of INR 10,372 Cr in the next five years, aiming to foster innovation in the homegrown AI ecosystem and implementing the Mission’s vision via a public-private partnership (PPP) model. 

It covers initiatives such as IndiaAI Compute Capacity, IndiaAI Innovation Centre (IAIC), IndiaAI Datasets Platform, IndiaAI Application Development Initiative, IndiaAI FutureSkills, IndiaAI Startup Financing, and Safe & Trusted AI.

Centre’s Push To Scale AI Compute Capacity 

IndiaAI Compute Capacity envisions building a cutting-edge, scalable AI computing infrastructure by deploying more than 10,000 GPUs through PPP model. 

The Centre is looking to build affordable AI infrastructure to support startups, academics, and research agencies. “The government is actively shaping an AI ecosystem where computing power, GPUs, and research opportunities are accessible at an affordable cost,” said MeitY in a statement last year. 

Hailing IndiaAI’s vision, the ministry said that the key focus of this mission is the development of a high-end common computing facility equipped with 18,693 GPUs. The ministry underlined that this capacity is nearly nine times that of the open-source AI model DeepSeek and about two-thirds of what ChatGPT operates on. 

Under the mission, the government also eased the eligibility criteria for the procurement of GPUs to allow more participation of smaller companies and startups.

It was reported in January that MeitY received offers for 20,000 GPUs which was twice of what was initially proposed for empanelling companies.

After that, the Centre selected ten tech giants for the final bidding process to procure 10,000 GPUs including Jio Platforms and Tata Communications. 

Besides, the IndiaAI Mission in March received around 120 applications to build AI foundation models in the second round of bidding.