Government to restrict AI tender to India-incorporated firms, plans to procure 1000 GPUs: Report

The successful bidder will be required to offer services online, with the capability for users to dynamically scale AI resources according to their needs.

The Indian government will limit participation in the upcoming tender for the India Artificial Intelligence (IndiaAI) Mission to companies incorporated within India, according to a report by The Economic Times. Citing sources, the report reveals that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is preparing to issue a tender to procure 1,000 graphic processing units (GPUs) or equivalent AI computing capacity.

The tender will initially cover a three-year service period, with the possibility of extension based on mutually agreed terms. The winning bidder will be responsible for delivering AI services, which must be accessible to academia, startups, MSMEs, government agencies, and other approved entities.

The IT ministry is also expected to mandate that prospective bidders form a consortium of three companies: a data centre provider, a cloud service provider, and a systems integrator. Each consortium member must be legally incorporated in India, with one of the three acting as the primary service provider. According to a senior government official, cloud services must be delivered from data centres located in India.

In addition, the bid document specifies that the proposed cloud platform must either have 1,000 AI compute units operational with a self-service portal or provide an undertaking to make these units available within six months of winning the bid.

The successful bidder will be required to offer services online, with the capability for users to dynamically scale AI resources according to their needs.