U.S. President Joe Biden looks on as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi speaks during a meeting with senior executives and CEOs of American and Indian companies in the East Room of the White House on June 23, 2023 in Washington, DC.
Brendan Smialowski AFP | Getty Images
Top technology executives will travel to India this week for an AI summit in New Delhi, as the world’s biggest companies aim to expand their presence in what is seen as a key growth market.
India will host the AI Impact Summit this week, the latest in a series of government-sponsored events focused on artificial intelligence that have been held in the UK, South Korea and France.
Key attendees include Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai. Anthropic boss Dario Amodei and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis will also be in attendance.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will emerge from a red carpet that tech company CEOs happily walk, presenting a lucrative market of young, tech-forward consumers and a vast talent pool that could be key to the continued development of AI.
“The summit… is a huge validation of the market’s potential. Everyone is coming because they know this is where they belong and they can’t ignore India,” said Lalit Ahuja, CEO of ANSR, a company that helps run offshore teams in India.
The AI Impact Summit comes amid a reset in the relationship between India and the US as they push toward a trade deal.
India aims to become a major technology hub
Over the past few years, the Modi government has made clear its intention to make India one of the world’s technology powers. India has approved semiconductor projects worth $18 billion in a bid to build a domestic supply chain.
The government is asking major companies, including Apple, to manufacture more of their products in India.
Venture capital investors are betting on Indian startups as initial public offerings (IPOs) surge on the country’s stock exchanges.
Neil Shah, partner at Counterpoint Research, said government support for technology is “a red carpet for multinational companies to launch, expand and diversify their global operations.”
And with the door open, major companies are likely to announce major investments in India this week, while New Delhi will talk about opportunities in the country.
AI focus
Naturally, AI will be a big focus from three perspectives: infrastructure, users, and talent.
Big infrastructure investment deals centered around AI data centers are likely to be announced as demand continues to rise and tech companies hunger for more computing power. In December, Amazon, Microsoft and Intel committed to building AI infrastructure and chips in India.
India is one of OpenAI’s top markets for ChatGPT, alongside rivals such as Perplexity, which is offering its product for free in a race to acquire users and data that could give it an advantage in further training.
These U.S. chatbots have no major domestic competitors, giving them a good opportunity to tap into a tech-savvy user base.
Access to talent is also attractive. Shyam Arora, Tech Mahindra’s chief technology officer, told CNBC’s “Inside India” last week that India is a “factory of AI talent.”
An increasing number of so-called Global Capability Centers (GCCs) are being set up in India. These are effectively offshore hubs set up on behalf of international companies.
According to ANSR, which helps companies establish GCCs, more than 60% of GCCs established in the past two years have focused on AI, data, digital engineering and product development. According to ANSR, more than 80% of GCCs expected to be established in the next six to eight months are expected to be AI-driven.
But not only are tech giants looking to India for engineering talent, more and more companies are looking to India for senior leadership roles. ANSR’s Ahuja said the role of “chief AI officer” is becoming more common.
“And the fact that there is talent available…such positions are now being created in India,” Ahuja said.
