A startup located in the suburbs of Mumbai has received a big boost from global chip manufacturing giant Nvidia, as it aims to position itself as a major player in India’s growing artificial intelligence (AI) market.
Led by MD, CEO and co-founder Sunil Gupta, Yotta Data Services has been making substantial investments in buying high-value H100 chips from Nvidia.
“We at Yotta are proud to be at the heart of the AI revolution in India. The delivery of the NVIDIA H100 marks the beginning of a new chapter, not just for Yotta, but for a truly AI-powered digital Bharat," Gupta said.
Yotta’s first shipment consisted of more than 4,000 Nvidia H100 chips and more than 16,000 are scheduled to arrive in June, reported Bloomberg News. While Yotta’s investment in Nvidia’s AI chips is not as big as OpenAI or Google, it has made India’s largest bet yet on the promise of delivering AI tech.
Gaining the AI edge in India
Sunil Gupta has gained a competitive edge over India's prominent tech players and conglomerates, owing partly to his strong rapport with Jensen Huang, the celebrated CEO of Nvidia.
"I'm ambitious, I'm hungry," 52-year-old Gupta was quoted as saying in the Bloomberg report. "I'm willing to take a bet on the future of AI."
By using Nvidia's advanced chips, Yotta aims to provide cost-effective access to AI infrastructure, addressing concerns related to latency and affordability.
Moreover, he is even considering accepting equity instead of cash payments in a bid to support Indian startups facing financial constraints.
However, Yotta faced initial hurdles with customs officials in India due to the high value of the Nvidia chips. Despite these hurdles, Gupta's ensured the successful delivery of the much-needed components for Yotta's AI infrastructure.
The total number of Nvidia chips bought by Yotta is likely to reach about 20,000 by June and while it is not huge by global standards, it is a big deal for the firm as Nvidia’s supply is far short of demand.
“You have the data, you have the talent,” Huang said at the time. “This is going to be one of the largest AI markets in the world,” he added.
Just a day after this meeting, Gupta got a call from the Nvidia team asking him if he could meet the CEO in Pune. This was the first step in the collaboration between Nvidia and Yotta.
Gupta sees a distinct necessity for the creation of AI models originating from India, tailored with local languages and cultural diversity. "India requires sovereign AI, India requires sovereign models," he said.
Additionally, cloud providers in the Middle East are facing scrutiny following a call from a prominent US lawmaker for the Commerce Department to investigate the Chinese affiliations of Abu Dhabi-based AI firm G42.
Given the situation, Gupta believes he can cater to customers in India and across Asia and the Middle East amidst these developments.
It may be noted that Gupta's collaboration with Nvidia comes with stringent protocols and specific requirements for establishing the AI cloud business. To meet these standards, he has dedicated the entire sixth floor of the facility to this endeavour.
Gupta has named the inaugural H100 cloud service "Shakti," which translates to "power" in Hindi.
