Microsoft-Yotta partner to bring Azure AI to Shakti Cloud for IndiaAI

The partnership aims to drive India's AI goals by deploying Azure AI services on Shakti Cloud, expanding access for enterprises, institutions, and developers

Microsoft and Yotta Data Services have joined hands to offer the former’s Azure AI services on Shakti Cloud, the latter’s cloud platform, the two companies said in a press note. The partnership will help Microsoft and Yotta engage with IndiaAI Mission participants, government agencies, IITs, start-ups, enterprises, and software development companies to leapfrog AI innovation, they said.

 

“Our partnership with Yotta to power Shakti Cloud will help unlock AI innovation at scale. India is already among the top global markets in AI adoption and return on investment. Together with Yotta, we will continue to help India become an AI-first nation, securely and responsibly,” said Puneet Chandok, president, Microsoft India and South Asia.

 

The central government has announced a Rs 10,372 crore IndiaAI Mission with seven key pillars, including enhancing India’s compute capacity, building an IndiaAI innovation centre, creating and managing an AI datasets platform, and launching an application development initiative, among others.

 

Against the targeted procurement of 10,000 graphics processing units (GPUs)—a key hardware component required for developing foundation models, large language models, and small language models—the government received nearly 18,500 GPUs in the first round of bidding and hopes to receive bids for another 15,000 in the second round. 

 

Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw has also announced the government’s intent to help companies build a sovereign foundation model within the next 10 months. The development of the foundation model is also being undertaken under the IndiaAI Mission.

 

“The Microsoft-Yotta partnership will give access to cutting-edge AI capabilities to all Indian enterprises and provide a significant boost to the nation’s AI ambitions,” the companies said.

 

“This partnership is a key step towards India’s AI self-reliance and digital transformation, and we are excited to support Indian enterprises in their journey towards AI excellence with a full gamut of offerings. The combined strength of Microsoft’s services, backed by Yotta’s infrastructure, gives access to some of the best capabilities to support AI development in the country. It will make cutting-edge AI capabilities accessible to Indian enterprises of all sizes,” said Sunil Gupta, chief executive officer and co-founder, Yotta Data Services.