NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, during a conversation at the ET Conversations event in Mumbai, expressed his strong belief in India’s role in shaping the future of artificial intelligence. Speaking with Sruthijith KK, Huang underlined the potential of India’s IT sector, its engineering expertise and its vast digital economy.
“India has all the ingredients to lead the AI revolution,” Huang stated, explaining that the country’s strengths in data, computer science, and energy position it as a pivotal player in the evolving AI landscape.
Reflecting on AI’s transformative impact, Huang described the emerging “AI factories” that are shaping a new industry. These AI-driven systems, he said, “produce intelligence at scale,” marking a departure from traditional software production. He elaborated, saying that AI allows for the production of knowledge itself, which could take many forms, such as “words, images, videos, maybe even chemical compounds for drugs or amino acids and proteins.” In Huang’s view, this revolutionary capability is not just redefining computing but creating an entirely new industrial paradigm.
Huang also addressed India’s unique opportunity to transition from a back-office outsourcing model to an AI-driven front-office innovation hub. He urged the country’s IT sector to seize this opportunity, noting: “This is an extraordinary time for India to reinvent itself from a back-office, cost-reduction industry to a front-office, AI-driven innovation ecosystem.” This shift, according to Huang, will allow India to create value at a scale never before seen, benefiting both the nation and the global technology landscape.
India’s cultural and technological assets, Huang believes, align well with Nvidia’s vision of AI-led transformation. He spoke about the country’s vast reserves of data and the population’s digital literacy as invaluable resources.
“The data of India belongs to India; it’s your natural resource,” he noted, which stresses how AI could enable India to capitalize on its own data to drive innovation across sectors. He shared an insightful conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who remarked that “India should not export flour and import bread, the AI factories should be part of the national infrastructure.”
Huang was particularly inspired by India’s burgeoning ecosystem of AI startups and tech giants that are already pushing boundaries. He pointed out: “The energy around artificial intelligence and the literacy and capability developed here in the last year are really quite extraordinary.” The CEO sees an exciting future where AI empowers every Indian to enhance their capabilities, likening AI to a tool that can “make us all superhuman.”
Ending on a note of optimism, Huang remarked on NVIDIA’s deep ties with India, noting that the country is integral to the company’s success.
“A third of NVIDIA is here in India, a third of our engineers are here, and we’ve been in Bangalore for almost 25 years,” he shared. This underscores his confidence in India’s potential. For Huang, India’s expertise in AI and computing provides an “incredible opportunity for India to take advantage of this AI revolution,” a once-in-a-generation shift he believes India is poised to lead.
Featured image: Credit: https://www.flickr.com/photos/presidentialoffice/53319959776/Author總統府, Wikipedia
