Bharti Airtel will not be an early mover in GPU as a service space, says Gopal Vittal

Gopal Vittal

Bharti Airtel will not be an early mover in offering GPU- as-a-service through its enterprise business, though its data centre operations will remain a key focus, vice chairman and managing director Gopal Vittal has said.

Airtel MD’s comments come at a time when players like Jio Platforms, Tata Communications, E2E Networks, Ctrls Datacenters and Yotta Data Services are offering the service under the IndiaAI mission. Tata Communications launched GPU-as-a-Service in January and is in talks with several customers.

“…we are closely looking into it…we've done multiple workshops to understand the space well, and we've decided that we will not be an early move at the GPU as a service. But the data centre business continues to remain a focus for us. We are trying to see how we can expand it. And so while conversations are on, there's nothing you know to report right now,” Vittal told analysts in the Q3 earnings call on February 7.

Vittal said the cost of the quality and efficiency of the chips and the money you make on GPU as a service is changing very fast.  “Much depends on sophisticated work around managing those workloads,” he said.

GPU as a Service (GaaS) refers to cloud-based platforms that provide on-demand access to powerful Graphics Processing Units (GPUs), which are optimized for tasks like AI, machine learning, data analytics, and high-performance computing. This service eliminates the need for businesses to invest in expensive hardware and infrastructure, offering a more cost-effective and flexible solution.

GaaS is particularly beneficial for startups, research institutions, and companies that require significant computational power but cannot afford to maintain in-house GPUs.

Globally, and in India, GaaS is becoming increasingly important as several industries demand more powerful computing capabilities. The growing adoption of cloud computing, the need for cost-efficient scalability, and the expansion of data centers are driving the rise of GaaS.