New Delhi is rapidly emerging as a focal point for global artificial intelligence investment, with tech giants committing hundreds of billions of dollars to Indian AI initiatives. The surge in capital comes against the backdrop of the India AI Impact Summit, a major event drawing world leaders and AI executives, and underscores India’s ambition to become a significant player in the global AI landscape.
Hyperscalers – including Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, and Alphabet – are collectively poised to invest as much as $700 billion in AI this year, according to reports. This global trend is heavily influencing the commitments being made in India, as companies race to establish a foothold in a market with a large talent pool, expanding digital infrastructure, and a growing consumer base.
Indian conglomerates are also stepping up their investments. Reliance reportedly plans to invest $110 billion in data centers and related infrastructure, while Adani Group has outlined a $100 billion plan to build AI-focused data centers over the next decade. This commitment from Adani is expected to catalyze an additional $150 billion in related investments, potentially creating a $250 billion AI infrastructure ecosystem in India by 2035. The company intends to power these data centers with renewable energy, aligning with India’s sustainability goals.
U.S. Tech firms are deepening their engagement with India’s tech ecosystem. Microsoft, at the India AI Impact Summit, announced it is on track to invest $50 billion in AI in the Global South by the end of the decade. OpenAI and chipmaker AMD have both forged partnerships with Tata Group to bolster AI capabilities. U.S. Asset manager Blackstone participated in a $600 million equity raise for Indian AI infrastructure company Neysa, signaling growing investor confidence in the sector.
The influx of capital is not without its complexities. The summit was marked by controversy when Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates withdrew due to public backlash related to his past association with Jeffrey Epstein. An Indian university faced criticism after claiming to have invented a commercially available robot dog that was, in fact, a Chinese-made product.
India’s AI Potential
India’s push for AI dominance is part of a broader strategy to establish itself as a tech superpower. The country has already approved $18 billion in projects aimed at bolstering its domestic chip manufacturing capabilities, addressing a critical component of the AI supply chain. The U.S. And India are progressing towards a trade pact that would lower tariffs and enhance economic cooperation, potentially further facilitating technology transfer and investment.
The recently signed Pax Silica agreement, a U.S.-led initiative, aims to secure the global supply chain for silicon-based technologies, with India playing a key role. The summit itself attracted prominent figures from the AI world, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, Anthropic boss Dario Amodei, and Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, demonstrating the growing international interest in India’s AI potential.
Nvidia is expanding its partnerships with venture capital firms in India, seeking to identify and invest in promising Indian AI startups. While India’s public markets experienced a boom in initial public offerings towards the end of 2025, private capital investment in the AI sector remains relatively limited, according to Anirudh Suri, founding partner of the India Internet Fund. “What we’ve not maybe seen as much of right now is venture capital and private equity money to come in to invest in Indian entrepreneurs in the AI space,” Suri said.
Despite lagging behind the U.S. And China in overall AI development, Microsoft President Brad Smith believes India has the potential to become a significant hub for AI model development, particularly in specialized domains. “If you look at the…engineering talent, you quickly conclude India too can be a place where models are developed,” Smith stated, predicting “a variety of different DeepSeek moments” originating from India in the future.
However, some analysts remain cautious. Udith Sikand, senior emerging markets analyst at Gavekal, suggests that India’s current approach relies heavily on offering incentives without adequately addressing the underlying challenges of doing business in the country. “India is making splashy attempts to kickstart its belated AI push, but it is doing so primarily by offering headline-grabbing sops without addressing many of the underlying difficulties of actually doing business in India,” Sikand told CNBC.
