India must build its own AI models: Sarvam AI

NEW DELHI: India cannot afford to remain a passive consumer in the AI era and must urgently build its own frontier-scale artificial intelligence models if it wants to shape global technology rules, according to Pratyush Kumar, co-founder of Sarvam AI.

Speaking at the CII Business Summit, Kumar said Sarvam is now preparing to train its first trillion-parameter AI model within next nine months, marking what could become a major milestone for the country's indigenous AI ambitions.

"We can rent it for now until we don't have it, but you have to build it. You have to own the destiny around that," Kumar said, arguing that India must move beyond debates around whether it should build its own AI models and instead focus on creating long-term strategic capability.

Kumar said AI would become the defining intelligence layer across industries, governance, science and manufacturing, making ownership of foundational models critical for economic value creation. He warned that India risks repeating mistakes made during earlier technological revolutions.

"What we saw with steam engine, steel making and the internet, in all these eras, we became users and frankly lost out on key value creation," he said. "This is now the start of a new era, which is going to play out quarter by quarter." The Sarvam AI co-founder revealed that the company has already demonstrated a proof of concept showing India can build large-scale AI systems end-to-end, using domestic capabilities across data, algorithms, research and infrastructure. He also stressed that India would need significantly larger investments in AI infrastructure and research talent to compete globally. "The intelligence layer will accrue the value," he said. "It requires infrastructure, but it requires R&D talent to build these models." Warning against policy drift, Kumar said India still lacks a clear national AI direction.


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