Introduction:
What could prove to be a defining moment in India’s tech landscape is that the AI division of Ola Group, Krutrim, has announced plans for the country’s first family of AI silicon chips, which it proposes to manufacture by 2026. This all-or-nothing initiative, led by visionary founder Bhavish Aggarwal of Ola, was conceived to propel India onto the global AI playing fields in its quest for technological independence. The entry of Krutrim into chip manufacturing assumes evocative significance to the quest of the tech industry in India, especially when computing and artificial intelligence are undergoing a paradigm shift in the world.
Key event or challenge:
The announcement regarding Krutrim’s AI chip manufacturing plans came at the annual Ola Sankalp 2024, where Bhavish Aggarwal unveiled his strategy to develop a family of chips: Bodhi, Sarv, and Ojas. Each of these will be for special computing requirements: Bodhi for AI applications, Sarv for general computing tasks, and Ojas for edge computing. The demand for AI-centric hardware has been the direct provocation of this move, with a need for India to assert its technological sovereignty against the backdrop of rapid global developments in AI.
The challenge that Krutrim is going to face is huge. Entry into this very competitive and complex chip manufacturing field does not come easy, more so for a company primarily known for its ride-hailing and electric vehicle ventures. Leaders globally in semiconductors have built their reputation over years and have spent billions. Krutrim needs to develop state-of-the-art technology and build the proper infrastructure and competencies.
Product development process or the subject’s journey:
Krutrim’s foray into chipmaking is actually a subset of the broader vision of the Ola Group: technological independence for India. The company had already begun the process of building its AI capabilities, starting with Krutrim Cloud and AI services. Development of the AI chips is therefore quite logical in this strategy, which is geared at building a full-stack AI ecosystem all the way from silicon to software.
The process of developing these chips requires comprehensive research, design, and collaborative efforts with the best in the industry. Krutrim has formed strategic collaborations with some very famous technology companies, like Arm and Untether AI, for chip design and AI acceleration, leveraging their expertise. Only with such collaboration can Krutrim effectively climb the steep learning curve in manufacturing chips to enable it to build competitive products.
Challenges overcome:
One of the main challenges that Krutrim faces is the almost nonexistent semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in India. In this regard, working on not only chip design but also putting a great deal into infrastructure building, the company has geared up to counter the challenge. This increase in data center capacity from 20 MW to as much as 1 GW by 2028 shall go a long way in providing an enabling ecosystem for Krutrim’s AI ambitions.
Along with this highly specialized field comes another stiff challenge: attracting and retaining top talent. In its bid to rope in the best talent, Krutrim is offering free cloud services worth ₹100 crore to developers until Diwali 2025. It has also announced that under the ‘Krutrim for Startups — Udaan’ initiative, ₹50 lakh has been earmarked to help creative entrepreneurs and build a culture of AI development in India.
Achievements or innovations:
The announcement of its chip manufacturing plans was not all of Krutrim’s achievements. It actually had huge achievements in the domain of cloud services and AI development. Since the launch in early 2024, Krutrim Cloud has gathered more than 25,000 developers and produced approximately 250 billion API calls across products. This aggression in adoption makes for a strong statement regarding the market’s love for homegrown AI solutions and validates Krutrim’s approach.
The company does not stop at hardware. Krutrim has introduced more than 50 new services on its cloud platform, including Bhashik—a language hub with multimodal translation capabilities—and Customer Experience AI, featuring multimodal AI agents for enterprises. These services demonstrate Krutrim’s commitment to developing a comprehensive AI ecosystem that caters to diverse needs across industries.
It has big plans for the future of its chip technology. Bodhi 2 will come in 2028, running with over 10 trillion parameters and exascale supercomputing, thrusting Krutrim into a league alongside, if not above, the world leaders in the manufacture of AI chips.
Timeline of key events:
- December 2023: Krutrim AI division launched by Ola Group
- Early 2024: Krutrim Cloud officially launched
- August 2024: Announced plans to manufacture India’s first AI silicon chips by 2026
- 2026: Targeted launch date for the first family of AI chips (Bodhi, Sarv, and Ojas)
- 2028: Bodhi 2 chip is planned to be launched; scaling of data center capacity is targeted at 1 GW
Key takeaways or lessons learned:
Krutrim’s bold foray into manufacturing AI chips underlines an oft-repeated point: technological self-reliance in that rapidly changing landscape of AI. And the way the company is building a full-stack AI ecosystem—from silicon to cloud services—proves a holistic strategy is needed in the development of AI. Not only technological innovation but also the ability to build a positive ecosystem of developers, startups, and industry partners will be the deciding factor in the success of Krutrim. It won’t be an easy road ahead and will be long, but if Krutrim succeeds, it can dramatically alter India’s positioning in the global AI market, setting a new wave of technological innovation across the country.