Modi government to discuss AI chip export curbs with Trump
What's the story
India is gearing up to raise its concerns with the incoming Donald Trump administration over the US's artificial intelligence (AI) chip export restrictions.
The outgoing President Joe Biden's administration had imposed these regulations, which classify countries into three categories based on their access to AI chips.
Industry experts have raised concerns that these restrictions could stifle innovation and raise costs as India looks to scale up its AI capabilities.
Policy implications
US AI Diffusion policy's impact on India
The US AI Diffusion Policy categorizes nations into three groups for AI chip access.
Twenty countries, including Australia and the United Kingdom, have free access.
Another group of 20 nations, including China and Russia, are entirely barred.
The rest of the 140 nations, including India, are capped at 50,000 advanced GPUs but this limit can be doubled if they accept the US's stringent security standards.
AI expansion
India's AI mission and potential challenges
As part of its ₹10,738 crore India AI Mission, the government is procuring nearly 10,000 GPUs.
Companies such as Reliance Industries are also building AI data centers with NVIDIA's advanced GB200 chips.
However, the new rule could create compliance issues for Indian firms ordering NVIDIA GPUs, and potentially disadvantage Indian data center providers in comparison to their US counterparts.
Expert opinions
Industry experts weigh in on AI chip restrictions
Ashok Chandak of the India Electronics and Semiconductors Association emphasized potential long-term effects post-2027.
This include uncertainties over license security and trade negotiations for large-scale AI hardware deployment.
Counterpoint Research's Neil Shah emphasized India's necessity to prove itself an ally to ensure access to critical technology if curbs continue.
However, Indian officials are optimistic about the short-term impact of these restrictions, saying current limits should suffice for a year or two.
Long-term solution
India explores domestic production of GPUs
In light of the US's AI chip export restrictions, India is looking at developing its own GPUs as a long-term solution.
The government has started consultations with industry and the Center of Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in this regard.
This move could potentially soften the blow of restricted access to advanced chips from the US and keep India's AI initiatives on track.