Santhosh Viswanathan, Vice President & Managing Director, India Region, Intel, is brimming with optimism. In a wide-ranging interview with Tech Today, he paints a picture of India as a nation on the cusp of becoming a global AI leader. Citing the country's rapid digitalisation, abundance of engineering talent, and a government pushing for technological self-reliance, Viswanathan argues that the stars are aligning for "Amazing India" to seize the AI moment.
This bullish outlook is backed by concrete action. Intel recently elevated India to a standalone geographical unit, signalling its strategic importance. The company is investing heavily in local manufacturing, nurturing a vibrant startup ecosystem, and forging major partnerships to bring AI to every corner of the Indian economy.
From powering large language models in partnership with Tech Mahindra to collaborating with Ola on a multilingual AI model, Intel is laying the groundwork for India to become a global AI powerhouse. As Viswanathan puts it, "We believe Intel is a key partner to bring AI everywhere and unlock the potential our country offers."
PD: In the past, you've described AI as "Amazing India." Why do you think this is India's moment and what unique opportunities does this present for the country?
Santhosh Viswanathan: India stands out with abundant opportunities, driven by rapid digitalisation, robust infrastructure, top engineering talent, and a strong culture of innovation. Technology is deeply ingrained in the nation's fabric, and every problem seemingly has a digital solution. Serving its 1.4 billion population, India's digital transformation handles 11 times more daily digital transactions than Europe and the U.S. combined. The India Stack has been a game-changer and initiatives like UPI, Jan Dhan Yojana, Cowin, Aadhar, DigiLocker, and ONDC are setting a global benchmark for population scale, frugal technological advancements. India excels in solving problems at scale, exemplified by its ban on single-use plastics in 22 states and a projected 100% CAGR in electric vehicles until 2030.
India is poised to emerge as an AI powerhouse. According to a recent IDC and Intel report, AI spending in India is projected to grow at the highest CAGR among eight Asian markets surveyed—at 31.5% from 2023, reaching $5.1 billion by 2027. This growth is fuelled by India’s robust economy and vast population, generating substantial data for AI applications. With 936 million internet subscribers, 1.1 billion mobile subscribers (over 630 million using smartphones), and 400 million social media users, India possesses the data to fuel AI models. This is a national treasure we own and Government support, localising data, a vibrant startup ecosystem, and a large talent pool are key drivers to unlock the same. Home to 20% of the global AI talent, India has the second-largest AI/ML/Big Data Analytics workforce and leads in AI skill penetration. The massive developer community, poised to surpass the U.S. by 2027, drives innovation and strengthens India's AI capabilities.
Overall, these favourable conditions are enabling businesses to thrive, positioning India to lead in AI innovation.
PD: Intel's recent decision to elevate India as a separate geographical unit suggests a strong focus on the Indian market. What opportunities do you see for Intel's growth in India?
Santhosh Viswanathan: Earlier this year, Intel elevated India to a separate geographical unit, highlighting the immense growth potential and exciting opportunities we see here. India hosts Intel's largest design and engineering centres outside the U.S., with state-of-the-art facilities in Bengaluru and Hyderabad. These centres house 13,000 employees, contributing to Intel products globally.
We believe Intel is a key partner to bring AI everywhere and unlock the potential our country offers. India generates 20% of global data but hosts only 3% of the world's servers, indicating a gap in domestic AI infrastructure. Addressing this disparity is key to realising India's potential as a global tech leader. Intel collaborates with OEMs, cloud service providers, and local manufacturers to build this ecosystem. We call it the India Tech Ecosystem.
Other key opportunities include building digital infrastructure at scale and leveraging the Make in India initiative to diversify the electronics manufacturing supply chain. With the 5G rollout, edge computing has become particularly significant for India. Technologies like ORAN are opening networks for innovation, transforming cell towers into local data centres. India is uniquely positioned to build telco systems, designs, and products from the ground up, and Intel plays a crucial role through tools and software like FlexRAN, supporting these advancements and building local hardware infrastructure that is open for innovation.
Intel plays a significant role in the Make in India initiative by supporting companies in developing India-specific designs efficiently, offering early access to products, reference designs, and local design engineer support. We collaborate closely with PLI/PLI 2.0 players, understanding their products, cost structures, and ecosystem connections. Following product development, the crucial step is the go-to-market strategy, connecting products globally. Intel facilitates matchmaking and sales engines to ensure market access in India and internationally.
PD: Can you share some examples of how Intel is innovating for society in India and the impact it has had?
Santhosh Viswanathan: Intel has long been pivotal in shaping India's tech landscape. From the early days of the IT ecosystem to the wireless and Wi-Fi revolution of the early 2000s, Intel has led the way. Today, we continue to drive innovation across multiple fronts for India's AI era. Through initiatives such as the Intel Startup Program, we support startups focused on emerging pioneering technologies like AI, machine learning, computer vision etc, offering them access to Intel's global network and technological mentorship. These efforts have led to significant advancements, from enhancing energy efficiency to transforming warehouse automation and accelerating medical diagnostics such as cancer screening and tuberculosis testing.
Additionally, Intel collaborates with the local ecosystem to co-develop solutions. For example, we collaborated with Cochin University (CUSAT) to create an AI breast cancer grading model and enabled students from VIT Chennai on a crop disease detection solution. In education, Intel is driving change through the widespread integration of AI. Our technology is elevating educational standards nationwide, illustrated by Iris – an AI-powered robot-teacher developed by MakerLabs. Deployed in a school in Kerala, Iris utilises GenAI to deliver personalised learning experiences, facilitate interactive education, and redefine personalised learning. Another impactful collaboration is with Videonetics, where Intel is transforming urban landscapes in India through AI-powered solutions incorporating Intel's advanced GPU technology for deep learning. This initiative enhances traffic management, enables real-time urban data analytics for infrastructure planning, and promotes the development of smart and secure cities.
Beyond technological innovation, Intel is committed to democratising AI knowledge through initiatives like AI for All and AI for Youth. These programs have provided foundational AI understanding to over 4 million individuals and trained 16,00,000 students in technical competencies such as data science and computer vision. Intel also actively engages with the developer community by providing open-source tools, optimised AI frameworks, and access to the Intel Developer Cloud, accelerating community-driven innovation. Intel is addressing societal challenges and driving progress across India through these efforts.
PD: Can you elaborate on Intel's strategy to bring AI everywhere, especially in the Indian context? Can you highlight some of the recent partnerships in this endeavour?
Santhosh Viswanathan: Intel is uniquely positioned to innovate across the AI market, from semiconductor manufacturing to PC, network, edge, and data centre systems. We offer a broad range of hardware and software platforms, providing open and modular solutions that deliver competitive total cost of ownership (TCO) and accelerate time to value. Our Xeon processors, designed for AI tasks, power data centres in India, enabling cost-effective hardware and infrastructure deployment. For large language models (LLMs), our Gaudi accelerators enhance efficiency and reduce TCO. We are also democratising AI by bringing AI PCs to Indian stores, ensuring broad access to innovation.
Pushing the boundaries of innovation is what we do best at Intel, and our partners help bring these possibilities to life. As our CEO Pat Gelsinger, said, "Every company is quickly becoming an AI company." We are committed to reimagining the power of GenAI for the future and strategising its impact on businesses in the near term. Some of our recent AI/GenAI-focused partnerships in India include:
Infosys: Infosys is bringing Intel technologies, including 4th and 5th Gen Intel Xeon processors, Intel Gaudi 2 AI accelerators, and Intel Core Ultra to Infosys Topaz – an AI-first set of services, solutions and platforms that accelerate business value using GenAI technologies.
Tech Mahindra: Tech Mahindra has collaborated with Intel and Dell on Project Indus – a Gen AI model designed to converse in a multitude of Indic languages. The Indus LLM will be implemented using an innovative “gen AI in a box” framework and will be a solution to simplify the deployment of advanced AI models for enterprises. The LLM adopts Intel-based infrastructure solutions, including Intel Xeon Processors, OneAPI software, and products leveraging CPU features like Intel Advanced Matrix Extensions (AMX).
Ola/Krutrim: Ola Krutrim is set to employ Intel's latest technology for pre-training and refining its inaugural Indian foundational model equipped with generative capabilities across 10 languages. Krutrim is currently in the process of pre-training an expanded foundational model using an Intel Gaudi 2 cluster.
PD: What is Intel's roadmap for AI PCs, particularly for the Indian market?
Santhosh Viswanathan: Today, the AI PC category is transforming every aspect of the compute experience, and Intel is at the forefront of this category-creating moment. It's no longer just about speed and design; it's about creating edge devices that learn and adapt in real-time—predicting user needs, adjusting to preferences, and enhancing productivity, efficiency, and creativity. Intel has responded swiftly, developing a premier hardware and software platform for AI PCs, backed by support for over 100 ISVs, 300 features, and 500 AI models optimised for the Intel Core Ultra platform.
Recently, Intel revealed the architectural details of Lunar Lake – our flagship processor for the next generation of AI PCs. With a massive leap in graphics and AI processing power, and a focus on power-efficient compute performance for the thin-and-light segment, Lunar Lake will deliver up to 40% lower SoC power and more than 3 times the AI compute. Starting Q3 2024, these processors will power more than 80 new laptop designs across 20+ OEMs, delivering AI performance at a global scale for Copilot+ PCs. Building on the success of Intel Core Ultra processors and with the addition of Lunar Lake, Intel will ship more than 40 million AI PC processors this year.
PD: Can you give us insight into the overall health of Intel's product roadmap for 2024 and beyond? Will these products be available in the Indian market?
Santhosh Viswanathan: We are thrilled about the progress of our process and product roadmaps as we advance our IDM 2.0 transformation. These include agreements with marquee Foundry customers like Microsoft, Wipro, and HCLTech. Microsoft plans to utilise Intel’s 18A manufacturing technology for in-house chip development, while Wipro will accelerate chip design innovation for Intel's most advanced process nodes. We have collaborated with HCLTech to co-develop customised silicon solutions, strengthening the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain to meet growing global demands.
In terms of process leadership, we are on track to achieve five nodes in four years, aiming to regain leadership in transistor and power performance by 2025. Alongside Intel 7 and Intel 4, the company’s first node using EUV is now in HVM, and major milestones have been achieved for Intel 3, 20A and 18A. We recently announced the launch of our Xeon 6 family of processors, including both E-core and P-core options, to address a broad array of use cases and workloads – from AI and other high-performance compute needs to scalable cloud-native applications. We also announced Gaudi 2 and Gaudi 3 AI accelerator chips, providing customers with the generative AI performance they seek along with a price-performance advantage that offers choice and fast deployment time at a lower TCO.