India-UAE pact challenges dominance of American tech giants

This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.

India is partnering with the United Arab Emirates to ease the grip of Amazon, Microsoft, and Google on artificial intelligence computing.

G42, backed by Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund Mubadala, signed an agreement on May 15 to deploy an AI supercomputer in India, comprising 64 systems made by US chipmaker Cerebras. A G42 unit will handle installation, operations, and maintenance, with Cerebras providing technical support, G42 said in response to questions from Rest of World.

Any government that wants to use AI today typically rents computing power from Amazon, Microsoft, or Google. India already has at least $45 billion in commitments from the three companies. The country’s $1.25 billion national AI program runs entirely on Nvidia processors, with 34,000 available to researchers and businesses, and a target of 100,000 by the year’s end.

The G42 deal adds a second path, where India will have machines on its own soil, under its own rules, run by a non-US partner.

“This is an example of India’s pragmatic approach to AI sovereignty, using the power of its scale to adapt what’s available from other countries, whether AI leaders like China and the US or others, to adapt to its own...

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