India’s Yotta to build $2 billion AI hub with Nvidia GPUs, plans IPO
Nvidia H100 chips in a server room at Yotta Data Services Pvt. Data center in Navi Mumbai, India, March 14, 2024.
Dhiraj Singh | Bloomberg | Getty Images
India’s Yotta Data Services is building a $2 billion artificial intelligence center. NvidiaIt was stated that the demand for graphics processing units in the country exceeds the supply as local AI models prepare to scale and the local user base increases.
Currently, India lags behind the US and China in the race to develop a domestic AI base model and lacks a major domestic AI infrastructure. This is starting to change.
During the India AI summit last week, several Indian companies launched early or limited versions of their AI models, such as Sarvam AI’s Indus chatbot.
“We are gradually rolling out Indus with a limited transaction capacity, so you may end up on a waiting list at first. We will expand access over time,” said Pratyush Kumar, co-founder of Sarvam AI., he said to post In X.
Most of the Indian AI models launched at the AI summit are trained on Nvidia’s GPUs hosted in Yotta facilities, the company’s co-founder, managing director and CEO Sunil Gupta told CNBC’s Inside India on Thursday.
Gupta said the Mumbai-based data center company, which started supplying Nvidia GPUs in 2023, now has 60% to 70% of India’s GPU capacity. He added that as user bases expand in India, demand is also expected to come from global AI companies.
Push for more data centers
In recent months, US technology giants such as OpenAI, Googleand Perplexity have made AI tools available to millions of users in India at low or no cost.
Among hyperscalers, Google strengthens plans to invest $15 billion to build a data center hub in southern India, Microsoft will invest $17.5 billion to expand its data center footprint.
OpenAI last week happened India’s first customer Tata Consultancy Services‘ data center business is signing up for 100 MW capacity with the option to scale to 1 GW.
“Through OpenAI for India, we are working together to build the infrastructure, skills, and local partnerships needed to build AI in India, for India, and in India,” OpenAI CEO Sam Altman said in a statement on Feb. 19.
As the Indian user base of leading global AI companies expands, Gupta said they will need local data centers and GPU capacity. Gupta added that Yotta plans to fund additional GPU acquisitions through a pre-IPO round of $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion and aims to list within the next 12 months.
According to Nomura’s February 20 report, India’s total data center capacity will be 1.93 gigawatts in 2025 and is expected to almost double to 4 gigawatts by 2028.
The brokerage firm said during the Artificial Intelligence Summit that many companies announced plans to invest $277 billion in the next five to seven years and most of these investments will be towards building AI infrastructure in India.
“A large portion of these investments will flow into data centres, with domestic and US firms pioneering hyperscale structures and positioning India as a key technology partner of the US,” the brokerage said.
