Nvidia Urges India to Boost AI Infra Investment After Budget

Nvidia has urged India to expand its investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure beyond the current allocation of $1.2 billion. The company said the move would help India compete globally and build stronger foundational capacity in AI.

At a major AI summit in New Delhi, a senior Nvidia executive called the Union Budget’s 20-year tax holiday for data center services a “big opportunity” to accelerate investment and build critical infrastructure.

Nvidia calls for larger AI spend

Nvidia’s Senior Vice President, Enterprise Business Shanker Trivedi said India has taken an important step with its existing AI budget. However, he added that the current investment was still too small compared with the scale needed for global competitiveness.

He pointed out that India’s AI funding of about $1.2 billion was commendable, yet inadequate when contrasted with the roughly $150 billion India invests annually in core physical infrastructure like roads and energy. Therefore, he said, India needs to allocate more to AI infrastructure to support both services and manufacturing at scale.

Trivedi highlighted that the Union Budget 2026-27 introduced a long tax holiday for foreign companies that use Indian data center services. This policy, he said, could help build base computing infrastructure in the country.

Growing global AI ecosystem

Nvidia dominates the market for high-performance graphics processing units (GPUs), which are critical for training and running advanced AI models. The company said that expanded AI compute capacity in India would support startups, enterprises and cloud providers alike.

In addition, Nvidia is working with Indian partners and technology firms to deepen its footprint. These collaborations span cloud, hardware and software platforms that underpin AI development.

Industry analysts say India’s deep base of developers, startups, and global capability centers gives the country a strong foundation. Still, they note that investment levels lag behind global leaders such as the United States and China.

Budget incentives and infrastructure gaps

The 20-year tax holiday for data centre services announced in Budget 2026 is designed to make India a more attractive location for global cloud and AI infrastructure investment. Under the policy, foreign firms get the same tax treatment whether they build data centres or use Indian infrastructure.

However, Nvidia officials said that even with tax incentives, India must invest more directly in AI infrastructure to build capacity that matches global demand curves. Trivedi said that establishing large-scale GPU clusters and shared facilities would be essential to scale AI innovation across sectors, including healthcare, finance, manufacturing and governance.

Strategic shift for India’s AI ecosystem

Observers say the call from Nvidia aligns with broader efforts by policymakers and industry leaders to transform India into a global AI hub. Alongside government programmes like the IndiaAI Mission, which focuses on ecosystem building and skill development, private sector investment will be critical.

Experts note that creating world-class infrastructure could help India retain talent, attract foreign capital, and build sovereign AI capabilities tailored to local languages and markets.

Meanwhile, Nvidia’s comments come amid other industry moves that highlight India’s growing role in the AI infrastructure landscape. For example, Indian data centre firms are expanding capacity, and other global technology companies have pledged significant investments in the country’s digital and cloud infrastructure.

In sum, Nvidia’s appeal to ramp up AI infrastructure investment underscores a shift in focus from initial momentum to sustained, globally competitive build-out of compute power and data centre capacity in India.