Governments say ‘aye’ to sovereign AI

India has launched a ₹10,000-crore AI Mission, an initiative aimed at developing domestic AI infrastructure and fuelling industry growth. The mission, which could soon take shape, kicked off with a tender for graphics processing units (GPUs), released last month.

A pre-bid meeting hosted by the IT ministry saw participation from heavyweights like Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Microsoft Azure, AWS, Google Cloud, and Palo Alto Networks. Generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping global economies, with nations scrambling to leverage this transformative technology for economic and productivity gains.

This has spurred the rise of ‘sovereign AI’, a concept that underscores a nation’s ability to develop artificial intelligence (AI) using its own infrastructure, training and research. ET’s Kumari Rajlakshmi Singh & Dia Rekhi take a look at how countries around the world are investing in AI to build sovereign capabilities.