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Indian cloud provider NxtGen to build sovereign AI factory
NxtGen Cloud Technologies, an Indian cloud and data center firm, has invested 3,600 crore rupees (US$389,824) to build a sovereign AI factory in the Bidadi Industrial Area in Bengaluru, in collaboration with Dell Technologies, Nvidia, CommScope, and Vertiv.
The project is managed by a newly incorporated entity, NxtGenAI, and nearly 30% of funding is equity from an Indian real estate group and the company’s promoters, with the rest funded through debt for a 10-year period.
The facility runs a dense cluster of 4,000 GPUs across 512 servers, occupying 6,000 sq ft. It uses Nvidia BlueField-3 DPUs, Spectrum-X Ethernet networking, AMD 9575F processors, Dell PowerEdge R670 servers, and Dell PowerScale F710 storage.
CommScope is responsible for cabling, while Vertiv provides power and cooling.
NxtGen said the infrastructure supports virtual language models on Nvidia, Intel, and AMD GPUs, and that it has developed 153 use cases, with 60 in production.
The company plans to invest another 3,600 crore (US$389,824) to deploy a second 4,000-GPU cluster before the end of the year.
🧠 Food for thought
Implications, context, and why it matters.
This AI factory marks a sharp shift for a company with modest financials
- The Rs 3,600 crore build dwarfs NxtGen’s last disclosed funding round, a Series B (a mid-stage venture capital round) of $13.5 million in 2015 1.
- In fiscal year 2023, NxtGen brought in $24.9 million in revenue, while losses grew to $10.6 million, which captures how cash-heavy this effort is 2.
- The site sits within a broader push to raise $400 million, with most of the money set aside for the national IndiaAI Mission programme (an Indian government initiative to build domestic AI capabilities) 3.
- It also fits India’s effort to build “sovereign AI” and cut reliance on foreign cloud providers 4.
This facility captures India’s fast-moving AI infrastructure race
- NxtGen joins a packed market. Microsoft, Amazon, and Google have announced more than $67 billion to localise AI infrastructure and cloud capacity in India. Adani Group has pledged $100 billion by 2035, including a 5-gigawatt (GW) renewable-powered hyperscale data center platform (a very large, industrial-scale data centre) 4.
- These AI factories need layouts built for 100 to 300 kilowatts per rack, which goes well beyond standard cloud designs 3.
- The expansion will pull heavily on power supply. Data centers could reach 3 to 5% of India’s total grid load by 2030 5.
- Even as national capacity rises, the high-cost approach can concentrate the market, leaving smaller firms unable to pay for the gear required to keep up 6.
🔗 Source: The Economic Times
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