Latest news with #AI-related
Mint
5 hours ago
- Business
- Mint
India is missing the core elements needed to realise the AI dream
New Delhi: India's mushrooming artificial intelligence-focused startups are attracting a lot of buzz, but a lack of innovation and groundbreaking research means the country is way behind the US and China in the tussle for AI supremacy. This is a result of what the industry calls 'secondary' innovation—technologies that cannot be patented globally to influence global economics in the long run. Spending on foundational engineering, research and development (ER&D) work in AI is minuscule, at least five executives involved in AI-related work told Mint. In November, the World Intellectual Property Organization (Wipo's) annual report said that India was the sixth region in the world in terms of overall patent applications—behind China, the US, Japan, Korea and the European Union. However, the gap was stark—China filed 1.7 million patents through 2024, almost 3x more than the US, with 600,000 patents. India filed only 90,000 patents—5% of what China did. Also read: AI firms getting GPU sops may see govt at the table The gap is even more evident in generative AI, the core battlefield in global technology right now. Last year, China filed over 38,000 patents in generative AI with Wipo, the global patent authority, ahead of the US with around 6,500 patents. India ranked sixth here too with 1,350 patents in generative AI—3.5% of China's advancements, and around a fifth of the US. Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union minister for electronics and IT, promised last month that 'India's first foundational AI model is still on track to be released by the end of this year". Yet, the patent filings suggest a US-China war for AI supremacy threatens to leave India out of the league of nations that would influence global innovation and economy over the next decades. Fund scarcity Founders argue that much of this is due to the lack of large early-stage funds. US-based Essential AI, founded by Ashish Vaswani, the former Google Brain engineer who co-invented the transformer model that backs all generative AI applications, emerged from stealth in December 2023 with a $56.5-million series-A funding round. Others that have raised large capital in the US over the past three years include Adept AI's $65-million Series A funding round in April 2022, Cursor's $60-million Series A in August and more. Each of these ventures is currently investing in building foundational technologies that, in the long run, would be patented and licensed to run AI applications and services around the world. Also read: Sovereign silicon: India targets indigenous 2nm, Nvidia-level GPU by 2030 Executives leading global ventures agree that India is behind the curve in AI at the moment. There is 'definitely a lack of enough AI engineers working on core engineering in the field in India", said Pranav Mistry, founder and chief executive Mistry, former global chief of Samsung's advanced research division, spoke withMinton the sidelines of a gathering in Bengaluru earlier this month. 'There is certainly a mindset difference between India and the US in terms of how ventures approach AI engineering in the two nations. In the end, being able to hold patents is what will give geographies access to geopolitical soft power over the years to come—and India should definitely focus on this field," Mistry said. Vaswani of Essential AI said, 'There's no reason for India to not build its own AI models—and there should be more ventures focused on doing it in and for India, within India." Developing vision Investors argue that a lack of vision for the long run from founders is a key part of why core ER&D work is not being found among India's AI startups. 'Any entity pitching for undertaking foundational AI engineering comes with a five-year road map, which is the equivalent of multiple decades in the modern-day AI world. It is absolutely true that India is still working on building on top of the engineering that US and other entities are undertaking—and work that could be licensed globally and impact industries holistically are still at a very limited stage in India," said Pratip Mazumdar, co-founder and partner at early-stage venture capital firm, Inflexor Ventures. But the lack of funds is also a key reality. In India, apart from Sarvam's $41-million Series A funding round in December 2023, there have been no large early-stage investments in AI-focused startups. Noida-based and Bengaluru's two startups that, alongside Sarvam, have been the first to be backed by the Centre's $1.2-billion IndiaAI Mission, have raised $5.25 million and $4 million in funding so far, respectively. Gurugram-based Soket AI Labs, the fourth of the first government-backed startups, has yet to raise a venture capital round and only has 'around $3 million from angel investors" so far, according to its founder and chief executive, Abhishek Upperwal. Government support 'This is why the government's AI Mission reducing the cost of access to processors for training AI models is crucial, and we're happy to offer equity to the government in exchange for the access," Upperwal said. Also read: The brain behind Generative AI has his sights set on India 'Venture capital investors in India have a limited appetite for investing in deep-tech R&D, which is crucial for AI startups to build a new foundational AI architecture that can be patented and licensed out for global usage in the long run—we've been trying to raise capital for the past two years, but to no avail," he said. The issue, policy experts said, goes beyond just the startups. A startup 'is only as able as the whole ecosystem—and no single entity can alone solve a fundamental issue in an entire industry", said Rohit Kumar, founding partner of The Quantum Hub and a consultant in various government and public sector initiatives. 'Fundamentally, R&D in India is still not well-prioritized—budgets are too little, and institutions do not have the means that their US and China counterparts have to pursue fundamental innovation," said Kumar. 'Incubators in top engineering institutes are hampered by bureaucratic processes, which isn't seen internationally—India is heavily shackled in these ways." In the long run, though, investors believe that a key balance between core innovation and nifty application development would be the right way forward. Vishesh Rajaram, managing partner at deep tech-focused venture capital firm Speciale Invest, said that while India is 'a little behind the curve at the moment, we haven't missed the bus in AI yet." 'A lot of the foundational work is hard, and has multiple challenges to the tale—access to infrastructure is limited, and the kind of talent that can actually undertake work that would be foundational or be patented is also limited. As a result, there's, of course, room for startups to catch up in terms of core engineering efforts, unlike how many refer to India having missed the opportunity to influence the global electronics and semiconductor industries," Rajaram said. Prayank Swaroop, partner at venture capital firm Accel, said for startups, 'the real opportunity lies in purpose-built AI applications that solve specific problems at scale. We're seeing Indian startups creating targeted solutions using existing foundational models as building blocks—this approach allows faster innovation cycles and can deliver significant value." Others, however, believe that more weight to fundamental innovation is the need of the hour for India. The Quantum Hub's Kumar cited China's technological progress as an example. 'The high-volume, low-margin secondary innovation markets also need to be captured. But, as China has proved, gains made in innovation at scale need to be reinvested into fundamental innovation," he said. 'China is a clear example of how that works, and we need to replicate this in India more efficiently."
Time of India
13 hours ago
- Business
- Time of India
Accenture Q3 earnings: Revenue rises 8% to $17.7 billion on Gen-AI momentum; Gen-AI revenue tops $700 million
Accenture on Friday reported an 8% year-on-year rise in revenue to $17.7 billion for the March-May quarter of FY25, supported by growing demand for AI-related services. The Ireland-headquartered IT services firm, which follows --a September-August fiscal calendar, also raised the lower end of its full--year revenue growth guidance to 6-7% in local currency from 5-7% earlier. The company's Q3 performance included a modest positive foreign exchange impact of 0.5%, it said in a statement. Accenture's gross margin for the quarter stood at 32.9%, compared with 33.4% in the same period last year. Accenture Chair and CEO Julie Sweet said, 'We continue to deliver on our strategy to be our clients' reinvention partner of choice and lead in Gen-AI,' highlighting that Gen-AI bookings for the quarter hit $1.5 billion, with revenues exceeding $700 million. Year-to-date, Accenture has secured $4.1 billion in Gen-AI bookings and generated $1.8 billion in revenue. According to the company, new bookings in Q3 totalled $19.7 billion, down 6% in US dollar terms. Of this, $9.08 billion came from consulting services and $10.62 billion from managed services. The Americas remained the largest contributor with $8.97 billion in revenue, followed by EMEA at $6.23 billion and Asia-Pacific at $2.53 billion. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Sanitize & Smooth Clothes Fast with Philips Steamer Philips Garment Steamers Learn More Undo Accenture said its global workforce stood at 7.9 lakh at the end of the quarter. Its data and AI employee count has reached around 75,000, and the firm aims to expand that to 80,000 by FY26. The company ended the quarter with a total cash balance of $9.6 billion and expects Q4 FY25 revenues in the range of $17 billion to $17.6 billion. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
India.com
2 days ago
- Business
- India.com
Bad news for this company employees, get 30 days ‘deadline' to… or resign in…, not Ratan Tata's TCS or Narayana Murthy's Infosys it is…
Amazon is ordering thousands of corporate employees to relocate to major cities like Seattle, Arlington, and Washington DC according to a report by Bloomberg. Already there is news of layoffs by many companies and this one can add more pressure on employees. The relocation mandate is for employees from different teams, wherein some of them have to move in the country which is close to their managers. This update was given to them in one-on-one meetings and town halls rather than company-wide announcements, according to media reports. 'We hear from the majority of our teammates that they love the energy from being located together, and whenever someone chooses to or is asked to relocate, we work with them to offer support based on their individual circumstances,' an Amazon spokesperson said. Amazon Relocation Warning Employees will get just 30 days to decide whether to relocate, followed by 60 days to either resign or start the relocation process. Employees don't want to relocate and will resign and may not get any severances. This will add more financial strain on them. Mid-career professionals who have school-age children and settled with their partners are finding it difficult to relocate. Considering Amazon's ongoing cost-cutting measures and recent warning about AI-related job losses, it can be even tougher for them in future. Amazon CEO On Layoffs After AI ERA Amazon CEO Andy Jassy anticipates generative artificial intelligence will reduce its corporate workforce in the next few years as the online giant begins to increase its usage of the technology. 'We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing other types of jobs,' Jassy said in a message to employees. 'It's hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.' The executive said that Amazon has more than 1,000 generative AI services and applications in progress or built, but that figure is a 'small fraction' of what it plans to build. (With Inputs From PTI)
Economic Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Sterlite Tech shares soar 35% in 2 days on data centre expansion amid AI demand
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel Shares of Sterlite Technologies jumped nearly 35% over two trading sessions, driven by the company's move to expand its data centre offerings to cater to growing AI-related infrastructure demand. The stock rose 13.5% today to Rs 112.8 on the BSE, after gaining 19.3% in the previous an exchange filing on Monday, the company said it has launched a new generation of data centre solutions—ranging from cabling to end-to-end connectivity—designed to meet the specific needs of hyperscalers , colocation providers, enterprises, and telecom expects the global data centre market to reach $517 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 10.5%.The new solutions include high-performance fibre and copper cabling systems tailored for smart buildings, campuses, and data centres. The company said its copper systems enable secure, reliable data and AV connectivity, while its riser and campus fibre cabling support high-speed, low-latency strengthen distribution in India, Sterlite has partnered with Tech Data – India, a subsidiary of TD SYNNEX. Tech Data specialises in emerging technologies such as cloud, cybersecurity, AI, IoT, and week, Sterlite Tech , in a joint venture with Dilip Buildcon , secured a Rs 2,631 crore order from BSNL under the BharatNet project. The contract involves building and operating middle-mile connectivity infrastructure across Jammu & Kashmir and to Trendlyne, the average target price for Sterlite Tech is Rs 93, suggesting a downside of 17% from current levels. Among the two analysts tracking the stock, the consensus rating is 'Buy'.Meanwhile, the stock has rallied 91% over the past three months but remains down nearly 3% over the past two years. Its current market capitalisation stands at Rs 5,430 crore.: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Sterlite Tech shares soar 35% in 2 days on data centre expansion amid AI demand
Shares of Sterlite Technologies jumped nearly 35% over two trading sessions, driven by the company's move to expand its data centre offerings to cater to growing AI-related infrastructure demand. The stock rose 13.5% today to Rs 112.8 on the BSE, after gaining 19.3% in the previous session. In an exchange filing on Monday, the company said it has launched a new generation of data centre solutions—ranging from cabling to end-to-end connectivity—designed to meet the specific needs of hyperscalers , colocation providers, enterprises, and telecom operators. Sterlite expects the global data centre market to reach $517 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 10.5%. Also Read: Street favourites! Analysts see these 10 smallcap stocks rallying 20-80% The new solutions include high-performance fibre and copper cabling systems tailored for smart buildings, campuses, and data centres. The company said its copper systems enable secure, reliable data and AV connectivity, while its riser and campus fibre cabling support high-speed, low-latency networking. To strengthen distribution in India, Sterlite has partnered with Tech Data – India, a subsidiary of TD SYNNEX. Tech Data specialises in emerging technologies such as cloud, cybersecurity, AI, IoT, and analytics. Also Read: 6 IPOs set to open this week. Check latest GMP trends Last week, Sterlite Tech , in a joint venture with Dilip Buildcon , secured a Rs 2,631 crore order from BSNL under the BharatNet project. The contract involves building and operating middle-mile connectivity infrastructure across Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. According to Trendlyne, the average target price for Sterlite Tech is Rs 93, suggesting a downside of 17% from current levels. Among the two analysts tracking the stock, the consensus rating is 'Buy'. Meanwhile, the stock has rallied 91% over the past three months but remains down nearly 3% over the past two years. Its current market capitalisation stands at Rs 5,430 crore. ( Disclaimer : Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times)
