India entered the AI race later than some nations, yet Sarvam AI and Peak XV Partners see favorable economic conditions emerging. Sarvam co-founder Pratyush Kumar and Peak XV Partners managing director Rajan Anandan discuss with Himanshi Lohchab how smaller, specialized models may deliver better results than costly frontier systems for Indian businesses. Topics include NVIDIA’s backing of Sarvam, growing interest in sovereign AI, the potential for voice AI to become India’s first billion-dollar enterprise category, and Sarvam’s development into a full-stack provider. They also address rising global AI expenses, India’s expanding compute infrastructure, and the possibility that 2026 marks a pivotal year for Indian AI similar to 2016 for digital payments.
