India Readies 10,000-GPU Portal For AI Startups, Reseachers Amid China’s DeepSeek R1 Breakthrough: Report

The government is reportedly set to announce the successful bidder for the procurement of 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) under the IndiaAI Mission this week.

Simultaneously, work on a dedicated portal that will enable startups and researchers to access these GPUs at lower costs is nearing completion, Moneycontrol reported citing a senior government official.

"The government has been working on making the portal, and we are nearly done developing it," the official was quoted as saying by Moneycontrol.

The initiative aims to provide affordable compute power to institutions and startups, supporting AI model training and innovation.

The bidding process took place on 22 January, with results expected by the end of the ongoing week, according to the report.

Ten firms, including Jio Platforms, Tata Communications, E2E Networks Limited, and Yotta Data Services Limited, participated in the tender to secure GPU resources under the initiative.

Of the total Rs 10,371.92 crore budget allocated for the IndiaAI Mission, Rs 4,563.36 crore—around 44 per cent—has been earmarked for ensuring compute capacity exceeding 10,000 GPUs over the next five years.

However, officials clarified that IndiaAI's approach remains unchanged.

"IndiaAI's compute pillar is very open and flexible. Ultimately, the idea is that institutions and researchers use GPUs and bring in innovations," a government official was quoted as saying by Moneycontrol.

The official also noted that since DeepSeek’s model is open-source, Indian startups and researchers are free to leverage it in their own developments.

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has opted for bulk GPU procurement, rather than relying on traditional viability gap funding, which could have excluded existing GPU capacity providers.

This approach ensures both established firms and new entrants can participate in the process, optimising the use of available GPU infrastructure.

Additionally, the ministry is open to subsidising GPU usage for specific needs such as research and innovation to enhance accessibility further.

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