India will dramatically expand its artificial intelligence compute infrastructure by adding 20,000 GPUs over the next six months, more than doubling current capacity from 38,000 to over 58,000 units. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw made the announcement at the India AI Impact Summit 2026, marking a significant acceleration in the country’s AI infrastructure buildout under AI Mission 2.0.
Orders for the new GPUs will be placed within one week of the announcement, with full deployment expected over the following six months.
This expansion forms part of what Vaishnaw described as AI Mission 2.0, emphasizing research and development, innovation diffusion, and common compute infrastructure accessible across startup, research, and student communities.
The expansion addresses critical compute capacity constraints that have limited AI development in India. Unlike many countries where AI infrastructure remains concentrated among a few large corporations, India has deliberately democratized access through its common compute layer, providing subsidized GPU access to researchers, startups, and public institutions at rates significantly below commercial cloud pricing.
Vaishnaw indicated that AI-related investment projections, previously estimated at $1 trillion including $90 billion already committed, are likely to be exceeded significantly.
The GPU expansion aligns with India’s semiconductor development roadmap under Semicon 2.0, where design will become the primary focus. This integrated approach linking AI compute requirements with semiconductor development reflects recognition that sustainable AI leadership requires controlling the full technology stack. As Vaishnaw emphasized, strategic autonomy means ensuring industry, government, and academia can collectively control national tech destiny than depending on foreign infrastructure and components.
