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Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw held discussions with senior officials from Nvidia, the global leader in graphics processing units (GPUs), on Thursday. The focus was on establishing sovereign GPU manufacturing and producing high-end edge devices within India. Nvidia commands over 80% of the global GPU market, with its chips in high demand for artificial intelligence development.
The meeting explored manufacturing edge devices such as the DGX Spark, a device capable of 1 petaFLOP performance with secure inferencing for models up to 200 billion parameters. This compact GPU operates without requiring an internet connection, making it suitable for critical sectors including railways, shipping, healthcare, and education, especially in remote applications. Vaishnaw shared details of the discussion, including a photograph with Nvidia's South Asia Managing Director, Vishal Dhupar, on the social media platform X.
Vaishnaw reiterated India's commitment to developing its own Graphics Processing Unit (GPU) within the next three to four years, a goal previously stated for the first half of 2025. The government is actively supporting AI technology developers by subsidizing GPU procurement, making them available at ₹65 per hour. This effort is part of the India AI Mission, which has already deployed 38,000 GPUs against an initial target of 10,000. Twelve startups have also been selected to develop native AI engines. Earlier this week, Nvidia showcased its DGX Spark and DGX Station AI supercomputers at CES, enabling local development of AI models.