India is partnering with the United Arab Emirates to ease the grip of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google on artificial intelligence computing.
G42, backed by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, signed an agreement on May 15 to deploy 64 supercomputers made by U.S. chipmaker Cerebras to India. A G42 unit will handle their installation, operations, and maintenance, with Cerebras providing technical support, G42 said in response to questions from Rest of World.
Any government that wants to use AI today typically rents computing power from Amazon, Microsoft, or Google. India already has at least $45 billion in commitments from the three companies. The country’s $1.25 billion national AI program runs entirely on Nvidia processors, with 34,000 available to researchers and businesses, and a target of 100,000 by the year’s end.
The G42 deal adds a second path, where India will have machines on its own soil, under its own rules, run by a non-U.S. partner.
This is an example of India’s pragmatic approach to AI sovereignty, using the power of its scale.”Cameron Kerry, former acting secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce
