Major technology companies including Nvidia, Intel, AMD, Qualcomm, Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud and Palo Alto Networks have shown significant interest in the Indian government’s Rs 10,000 crore tender for procuring graphics processing units (GPUs). This tender is a key part of India’s ambitious Artificial Intelligence (AI) Mission, it reported. The Economic Times.
At a pre-bid meeting held on Thursday, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) termed the level of interest as “exceptional.” The ministry plans to extend the deadline for submission of bids by two weeks after issuing clarifications to bidders.
MeitY additional secretary Abhishek Singh said the meeting generated around 500 suggestions regarding the tender. Representatives from other major companies such as Yotta, L&T, E2E, Tata Communications and Vigyanlabs were also present.
To be eligible to participate in the bidding as per the RFE guidelines, companies must submit a purchase order for 1,000 GPUs or demonstrate that they have a stock of 1,000 GPUs. Several global GPU manufacturers, cloud service providers and data centre operators raised their concerns during the meeting, prompting MeitY to consider extending the current deadline of September 6 to address these issues.
Singh highlighted the high level of enthusiasm for the AI Mission in India and added that the ministry received a substantial response to the RFE. As is customary in government tenders, companies will have two weeks from the date of publication of the clarifications to submit their bids. The deadline for submitting suggestions is Saturday, August 31, at 5 p.m.
One of the main concerns discussed was the RFE’s perceived favoritism towards large corporations, especially with regards to computing power specifications in teraFLOPS (one teraFLOPS equals one trillion floating point operations per second). Singh emphasized that the RFE is fair to both large and small players, and ensures equal opportunities.
It was also suggested to create a separate category for startups and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) with no prior experience, which would enable them to participate in the bidding. Participants also recommended including low-end GPUs, suitable for smaller workloads, in India’s AI Mission to address diverse needs.
According to the RFE’s scoring criteria, companies with an average annual turnover of between Rs 100 million and Rs 150 million over the past three years will receive five points. Companies with a turnover of between Rs 150 million and Rs 200 million will receive 15 points, while those with a turnover of Rs 200 million or more will receive 25 points. Some participants suggested that smaller companies might need to collaborate to meet these financial requirements.
Singh explained that these financial requirements are in line with the General Financial Rules, ensuring that only companies with sufficient financial strength and capacity can take on such complex projects.
Sunil Gupta, CEO of Yotta Data Services, hailed the RFE as a visionary step for AI/GPU cloud service providers.
Gupta highlighted Yotta’s recent purchase of 16,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs, of which 4,000 are already in operation, as an example of the significant investment needed to build India’s AI ecosystem.
He also highlighted that the panel’s framework aims to foster collaboration between different stakeholders in the AI ecosystem, including data centers, cloud providers, managed service providers and system integrators.
“This will help grow the AI ecosystem in India by making GPU capacity available in India in a cost-effective manner,” Gupta added.
First published: August 31, 2024 | 10:39 am IS
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