Paytm's Vijay Shekhar Sharma wants India to build its own AI models, ready to fund the builders

Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has offered to back Indian entrepreneurs building their own artificial intelligence models with money from his own pocket. Speaking this week at Cypher 2026, the AI conference in Bengaluru, Sharma said he would write cheques of Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore to founders willing to take on the challenge.

"Either come over, join us, or build your own and take money from me," he said.

The offer turns a question India's AI startup ecosystem has been debating, whether to build its own models or build on top of others', into a personal commitment from one of the country's best known technology founders.


Because Paytm is a listed company, Sharma said he cannot commit its funds to such bets. He did, however, offer founders the reach of Paytm's distribution network to get their products in front of customers.

Sharma, who brought mobile payments to India's shop counters through the QR codes and the Soundbox, drew on that experience. He recalled predicting years ago that India would become a global benchmark in payments, and said that prediction had held up. He now wants the same ambition in AI. "Why shouldn't we build the systems and technology for the world?" he asked.

Sharma said Indian companies have become good at building applications on top of models developed elsewhere, while much of the core capability still sits outside the country. He framed the goal as ownership, not isolation: India can keep using foreign models while developing several of its own.

He also argued that money is not what is holding India back. "There is enough capital, enough resources, and enough intention to support that," he said. Sharma put the cost of building an AI model at under USD 100 million, and said the bigger test is the willingness to commit to something difficult over the long term. "The ambitious guy commits to it and does not let it go," he said.

The stance mirrors how Sharma runs Paytm. At the company's 26th Annual General Meeting in September, he described AI as a "native capability" for Paytm and said, "We don't need to buy AI from outside." At Cypher, he said Paytm's risk engines and fraud systems are built internally, and that the company has retrained models for its own requirements. Sharma has previously said Paytm took a 200 billion parameter model and optimised it into a 4 billion parameter model for Indian languages, which it runs on its own machines. Its Q1 FY27 earnings release says Paytm has developed "function specific models and agents" by fine tuning open source models.

Paytm is now taking those capabilities beyond its own business. At the AGM, Sharma said services built on its AI are being tested within the company and piloted with some enterprise customers, under Paytm Intelligence, or Pi.

Sharma also framed AI as a source of national strength. Across a population of more than a billion, he argued, higher productivity could turn the technology into economic power for India rather than a threat to jobs. When an attendee said India lacks an AI ecosystem, Sharma rejected the premise.

"You are the ecosystem. Everything that you need is inside you."

For founders, Sharma said the Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore is only a starting cheque. He added that he could raise the amount if enough serious builders commit to the effort. A decade ago, Sharma bet that India's shopkeepers would take payments on a phone. His next bet is on the founders who can build India's own AI.