MUMBAI: Comparisons with the sold-out Coldplay concert here, a slew of collaborations with Indian businesses, and fulsome praises of India’s capabilities in tech marked the first day of Nvidia‘s AI summit in Mumbai on Thursday. The long queues to enter the venue delayed the event by nearly an hour. But that did nothing to dim the enthusiasm of the multitudes of techies and business folk that gathered.
Jensen Huang, CEO of perhaps the most happening company in the world right now, was clearly the star of the show, and charmed the audience with lines like, “India is very, very dear to the world’s computer industry,” referring to its vast pool of technical talent and its growing influence on AI.
But there was also Reliance chairman Mukesh Ambani, who in a fireside chat with Huang, noted how India has one of the youngest populations in the world, and how this group’s aspirations, combined with new technologies like AI, were propelling the economy forward. He also highlighted India’s transformation into a global innovation hub, noting that international companies across sectors – from space research to pharmaceuticals and energy – were now conducting their innovation work in India. And announced a partnership with Nvidia to develop AI infrastructure (data centres) using the chip company’s latest Blackwell GPU technology – Ambani said he will make AI accessible and affordable to India’s 1.4 billion population, much like how Jio democratised internet access.
And there was actor Akshay Kumar, who discussed martial arts and Thailand with Huang (Huang grew up in Thailand, while Kumar went there to learn martial arts). Kumar also asked Huang what jobs AI would not be able to do, to which Huang said one needs only to be worried about those who know how to work with AI taking the jobs of those who do not know how to use AI.
Business collaborations:
At the event, TCS announced the launch of the Nvidia business unit to design and deliver industry-specific AI solutions and offerings to customers across industries. Tata Communications announced an AI cloud infrastructure using Nvidia chips.Tech Mahindra announced the establishment of a centre of excellence powered by Nvidia platforms to drive advancements in sovereign large language model (LLM) frameworks, agentic AI, and physical AI. Infosys said it has launched two small language models built using Nvidia AI stack. Wipro unveiled new initiatives powered by the Nvidia AI stack that help clients across industries to rapidly develop and implement AI-driven business strategies. It also plans to expand its offerings into areas such as digital manufacturing and digital twins with Nvidia Omniverse, a platform used to build 3D applications and services. L&T Technology Services and Zoho were others who announced initiatives with Nvidia.
Hindi LLM
Huang said India is the perfect testing ground for the next generation of AI innovation, especially in language models. In a country where dialects can change every few kilometres, AI faces one of its greatest challenges – and opportunities. “If anybody can do it, you can do it,” Huang declared, referring to India’s potential to crack the complex puzzle of building language models. “Once India figures out how to create the Hindi large language model, you can figure it out for every other country,” he said.