NEW DELHI, India — On Feb. 17, 2026, at the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said India will expand its AI compute capacity beyond 38,000 GPUs, adding 20,000 more units in the coming weeks under its AI Mission 2.0.
Orders for the new GPUs will be placed within a week and are expected to be deployed over the next six months, Vaishnaw said at a press briefing, responding to an EE Times question on how India plans to strengthen the chip ecosystem to sustain AI-driven demand. The expansion forms part of what he described as “AI Mission 2.0,” with a stronger focus on R&D, innovation, AI diffusion, and common compute infrastructure.
“It is a constant endeavor to provide high-quality resources to our startups, researchers, and students,” Vaishnaw said.
The compute expansion also comes against the backdrop of the 2026 India-U.S. trade framework, under which the two countries agreed to significantly increase trade in technology products, including GPUs and other data center components. The agreement includes India’s intent to purchase $500 billion worth of U.S. energy products, aircraft, technology goods, and critical materials over five years, while expanding joint technology cooperation.
Vaishnaw’s announcement builds on the progress of the
IndiaAI Mission, which was approved in March 2024 with a ₹10,371.92 crore (~$1.14 billion) outlay over five years. The mission initially targeted 10,000 GPUs but has already reached 38,000 deployed units, offered at a subsidized rate of ₹65 per hour (approximately 72 cents per hour). With an additional 20,000 GPUs in the pipeline, India’s publicly supported AI compute pool is set to expand further over the next six months, widening access for startups and academic researchers.
Since its launch, the IndiaAI Mission has built out seven pillars, including subsidized compute, foundation model development, startup financing, and safe AI governance. Twelve startups have already been selected to develop indigenous multimodal foundation models using India-specific datasets.
The India AI Impact Summit itself serves as a showcase for these efforts, bringing together policymakers, researchers, and industry players to position India as both a consumer and
producer of AI technologies.
Semiconductor alignment under ‘Semicon 2.0’
Vaishnaw said earlier projections of $1 trillion in AI-related investment, including $90 billion already committed, are likely to be exceeded. Of that, $200 billion is linked to infrastructure investment, with an additional $70 million committed by venture capital firms in deep tech and application layers.
Based on current commitments, he said more than $400 billion in investment could materialize across five layers of the AI stack over the next two years.
Government reports project that India’s technology sector will cross $280 billion in revenue this year, while AI could add $1.7 trillion to the economy by 2035. The country currently employs around six million people in the tech and AI ecosystem.
Vaishnaw said the semiconductor strategy is being aligned with AI requirements. “In Semicon 2.0, design will be the primary focus,” he said, adding that at least 50 deep-tech companies are expected to emerge from India in the coming years.
The government is also preparing for commercial production at a large memory chip facility. “Announcements will be made shortly,” he said, adding that many companies have expressed interest in memory manufacturing in India.
Under the second phase of the India Semiconductor Mission (ISM 2.0), research projects are being undertaken to develop IP in high-density memory technologies. According to Vaishnaw, leading researchers have responded positively to these initiatives.
Vaishnaw stressed the need to control the technology stack and framed the approach around strategic autonomy. “The key point is that we should be able to control our own destiny,” he said. “Industry, government, and academia are committed to ensuring that our technological future remains in our own hands.”
That emphasis extends across the AI stack, from compute and semiconductors to energy infrastructure. The minister said 51% of India’s power generation capacity now comes from clean sources, positioning the country as an attractive destination for AI data center investments.
With compute capacity set to expand significantly and semiconductor design moving to the foreground, the next phase of India’s AI strategy will test whether infrastructure growth can translate into globally competitive products and IP.
