AI Investment: India could lose its tech market dominance if large companies don't rapidly increase AI investment...
India has long maintained a strong foothold in global technology services, but the rapidly growing wave of artificial intelligence is now challenging this lead. Abhishek Singh, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), has warned that if India's major tech companies do not rapidly increase their investment in AI, the country could lose its technological edge in the coming years.
Speaking at the Bengaluru Tech Summit, Singh said that India's strength has always been the "cognitive power" of Indian engineers, but now AI bots, auto-coding tools, and platforms like OpenAI and Anthropic are in direct competition with human developers. According to him, if skill development and AI adoption do not accelerate, India could suffer significant losses.
Government Funding 'A Drop in the Ocean'
Abhishek Singh explained that the government is investing in AI applications, foundation models, and compute infrastructure, but this is insufficient. He stated that government funding represents a very small portion of the total need and will need to be supplemented by a combination of industry, large tech companies, and venture capital investments. Singh says that while India's established tech companies have substantial cash reserves and strong profits, their pace of investment in AI is much slower than expected. He believes these companies should spend significantly on AI applications and solutions.
The US and China are far ahead in global AI investment
MeitY estimates show that AI investment in India surpassed the $20 billion mark this year. Despite this, India lags significantly behind countries like the US, China, and the UK. The US has invested $471 billion in private AI between 2013 and 2024, while China has invested $119 billion. The UK has also established itself among the leading countries by investing $26 billion over 10 years. Saudi Arabia is also rapidly moving ahead in the global race with a $100 billion AI plan.
Large corporate investments in India raise hopes.
While the pace of investment in India may be slow, several significant announcements have been made.
Google is building a $15 billion AI data hub in Visakhapatnam.
TCS has planned $5–7 billion worth of AI data centers.
Reliance Industries may spend $12–15 billion on AI infrastructure over the next few years.
Indian AI startups have received $5.3 billion in funding so far this year.
The government has also allocated $1.2 billion for the development of GPU infrastructure and large language models (LLMs).
Rapid investment in AI is needed; otherwise risks may increase.
Although AI investment in India has begun to increase, the pace is still lagging behind global standards. If India is to maintain its technological lead, major companies will need to invest more in AI research, development, and skill upgrading. Singh also said that India's future will depend on how quickly and seriously the country's major tech companies adopt AI.
Disclaimer: This content has been sourced and edited from Amar Ujala. While we have made modifications for clarity and presentation, the original content belongs to its respective authors and website. We do not claim ownership of the content.
