India and the United States will prepare a roadmap to accelerate artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure by the end of the year, with an eye on enabling investments in data centres and increasing access to computing power for AI, the two countries announced in a joint statement. The move could see an increase in US-origin AI infrastructure in India.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump announced the launch of the US-India TRUST (Transforming the Relationship Utilising Strategic Technology) initiative, to enhance government-to-government, academia and private sector collaboration to promote application of critical and emerging technologies in areas like defense, artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum, biotechnology, energy and space, while encouraging the use of verified technology vendors and ensuring sensitive technologies are protected.
As part of the initiative, the two leaders have committed to work with US and Indian private industry, “identifying constraints to financing, building, powering, and connecting large-scale US-origin AI infrastructure in India with milestones and future actions”.
“The US and India will work together to enable industry partnerships and investments in next generation data centers, cooperation on development and access to compute and processors for AI, for innovations in AI models and building AI applications for solving societal challenges while addressing the protections and controls necessary to protect these technologies and reduce regulatory barriers,” the joint statement said.
Why it matters
The development comes as India has initiated the process to procure close to 19,000 graphics processing units (GPUs) for offering it at subsidised costs to start-ups and researchers. And in the US, the likes of OpenAI, Softbank, Oracle, Microsoft and Nvidia are coming together to build artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure for OpenAI in the country. An investment of $500 billion is expected to be made in a new company — Stargate Project — to fuel this expansion over the next four years.
It also comes amid the meteoric rise of DeepSeek, a low-cost foundational model from China, which has shaken the AI industry.
So far, it was largely US companies like OpenAI, Microsoft and Google, which were setting the AI narrative — they had access to the most cutting-edge hardware made by another American company, Nvidia, and also access to the best AI talent in the world.
Story continues below this ad
But all that changed when, earlier this year, a Chinese AI lab released DeepSeek as an open-sourced model. Not only was DeepSeek competing with OpenAI’s latest models on several parameters, it was trained at a cost of around $6 million while having limited access to cutting-edge hardware due to sanctions. This was a fraction of what OpenAI took to train its models. Besides, DeepSeek is open-source, unlike OpenAI’s models, which allows developers to easily build on top of the former’s models, triggering fears that OpenAI’s competitive advantage might be at risk.
The announcement also puts a question mark over a Biden-era proposal on the export of AI hardware, which could have far-reaching consequences for India’s AI ambitions.
In an “interim final rule”, titled ‘Framework for Artificial Intelligence Diffusion,’ released earlier this year, the US government under Joe Biden had proposed to create three tiers of countries with specific restrictions on the export of AI chips and GPUs for each. India is in the middle tier of this classification and will face some restrictions on the number of GPUs it can import from the United States.
These countries will face a limit on how much computing power they can import from American companies, unless that computing power is hosted in trusted and secure environments. There are caps on the levels of computing power that can go to each of these countries: roughly around 50,000 advanced AI chips through 2027, although that can double if the state reaches an agreement with the US.
Story continues below this ad
It is unclear whether President Trump intends to follow through on the proposed law. If he doesn’t, that would be good news for India.
Other tech collaboration
The two leaders also announced that they intend to build trusted and resilient supply chains, including for semiconductors, critical minerals, advanced materials and pharmaceuticals. As part of this effort, they plan to encourage public and private investments to expand Indian manufacturing capacity, including in the US, for active pharmaceutical ingredients for critical medicines. “These investments will create jobs, diversify vital supply chains, and reduce the risk of life-saving drug shortages in both the United States and India,” the statement said.
“The leaders determined that their governments redouble efforts to address export controls, enhance high technology commerce, and reduce barriers to technology transfer between our two countries, while addressing technology security. The leaders also resolved to work together to counter the common challenge of unfair practices in export controls by third parties seeking to exploit overconcentration of critical supply chains,” it added.
