NEW DELHI – India can no longer afford to depend on foreign companies for its artificial intelligence future, according to Vivek Raghavan, co-founder of Sarvam AI. Speaking after Sarvam's recent $234 million Series B funding round, Raghavan stressed that building sovereign AI capabilities is now an imperative for the nation.
Geopolitical Shifts Demand Domestic AI Investment
Raghavan highlighted intensifying geopolitical tensions and restrictions on advanced AI technologies as key drivers for this urgent shift. He noted that global powers like the United States and China are significantly ahead in the AI race, making it critical for India to invest aggressively in its own domestic infrastructure, talent, and models.
"The view is becoming very clear that we can't rely on anybody else as far as this is concerned," Raghavan stated, referencing recent US government directives on tech exports and growing concerns over access to critical technologies.
India's ability to maintain strategic control over its data and improve its own models hinges on reducing reliance on external AI platforms, he argued.
Sarvam AI's Role and Strategic Funding
Sarvam AI's latest fundraise, which included a $150 million investment from HCLTech, is seen as a significant vote of confidence in India's potential to develop foundational AI technologies. Raghavan confirmed the capital would be deployed to train larger models, expand inference infrastructure, build agentic AI capabilities, and attract world-class talent to its team of over 200 employees.
The partnership with HCLTech is particularly strategic, as it connects Sarvam's foundational AI platforms with an Indian technology company's global enterprise reach. This collaboration is expected to facilitate the scaling of Sarvam's solutions across both domestic and international markets, with HCLTech developing enterprise solutions built upon Sarvam's core platforms.
Beyond a Technology Trend: A National Priority
Raghavan urged India to view AI not just as another technological trend, but as a strategic national capability. He acknowledged the support from the IndiaAI Mission, which has aided Sarvam in training and open-sourcing its models through subsidized compute support, but emphasized that this is merely a starting point.
Call for National Champions and Indigenous Infrastructure
- Compute Infrastructure: India must build its own computing capacity.
- Indigenous Models: Developing and training AI models within the country is crucial.
- Local Inference: Running these models on India's own infrastructure is essential for true sovereignty.
Raghavan called upon policymakers and investors to back a select few "national champions" with substantial, long-term capital to ensure India achieves meaningful AI sovereignty.