Brain drain and investor caution stall India's AI giant ambitions
India is still finding it tough to launch world-class AI giants, mainly because top talent often heads abroad for bigger paychecks and local investors are hesitant to fund expensive, long-term projects.
As Deedy Das from Menlo Ventures put it, foundational AI needs huge upfront investment and patience. Returns can take years, making it a hard sell at home.
IndiaAI Mission selects 20 foundation-model proposals
Even so, India is making waves in building real-world AI tools and infrastructure.
The government's IndiaAI Mission has already selected 20 indigenous foundation-model proposals and sanctioned subsidized compute for 237 projects to boost local innovation.
Startups like Wispr are getting noticed too. Menlo Ventures led a $280 million round in Wispr earlier this month, pushing its value to $2 billion.
Industry voices say the future looks bright for Indian-made AI applications.