Government to limit AI tenders to companies with Indian incorporation, intends to purchase 1000 GPUs

Only Indian-incorporated businesses will be eligible to participate in the next India Artificial Intelligence (IndiaAI) Mission tender, according to the Indian government. As per the sources, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is getting ready to launch a tender to buy 1,000 GPUs or similarly large amounts of AI computing power.

The tender will initially cover a three-year service period, with the possibility of extension based on mutually agreed terms. The winning bidder will be responsible for delivering AI services, which must be accessible to academia, startups, MSMEs, government agencies, and other approved entities.

The IT ministry is also expected to mandate that prospective bidders form a consortium of three companies: a data centre provider, a cloud service provider, and a systems integrator. Each consortium member must be legally incorporated in India, with one of the three acting as the primary service provider. According to a senior government official, cloud services must be delivered from data centres located in India.

In addition, the bid document specifies that the proposed cloud platform must either have 1,000 AI compute units operational with a self-service portal or provide an undertaking to make these units available within six months of winning the bid.

The successful bidder will be required to offer services online, with the capability for users to dynamically scale AI resources according to their needs.