Finding India’s Next AI Goldmine

India’s deeptech startups can tap AI infrastructure gaps in power, cooling and data movement, but patient capital and global customer adoption will determine their success.

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A recent debate over investors’ lack of interest in India’s hardware and deeptech bets has brought some longstanding challenges in the ecosystem back into focus. These include a lack of patient capital, pressure from limited partners (LPs) for early distributions, consensus-driven investing, and the difficulty of underwriting long development and qualification cycles.

As AI infrastructure moves beyond a pure compute race to focus on the layers that determine how efficiently systems run, India stands at the cusp of a significant opportunity. However, simply adding more computing power will not be enough for the country to establish itself as a global AI leader.

Instead, opportunities are emerging in the supporting infrastructure. Data centres, for instance, need more efficient power delivery, better cooling systems, and faster connections between processors and memory. These layers are becoming increasingly critical as they directly influence real-world performance and the total cost of ownership of AI infrastructure.

For India, the debate and the technical opportunity converge. Rather than trying to compete across the entire AI hardware stack, the country can develop specialised technologies. 

To understand which of these layers offer the strongest multiplier effects and what it will take for India to own them, we spoke to VCs tracking the homegrown deeptech ecosystem. Let’s unravel what they said in this edition of The AI Shift…

The Need To Power Data Centres

A consensus among VCs pointed to power delivery as the first major opportunity. As AI systems become more power-dense, improving power efficiency becomes an increasingly important engineering challenge.

Natasha Malpani, founder and general partner of Boundless Ventures, sees an opportunity in power electronics, grid-edge systems and cooling designed for hot and humid environments. Data centres operating in Indian cities must manage local temperature and humidity conditions, potentially creating demand for technologies that can also serve other tropical markets. “The multiplier here is integration,” she said.

Natasha Malpani, founder and general partner of Boundless Ventures, sees an opportunity in power electronics, grid-edge systems and cooling designed for hot and humid environments. Data centres operating in Indian cities must manage local temperature........

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