Nvidia urges India to scale up AI infra Investment, calls Budget announcement massive opportunity'

Times of India

Feb 16, 2026

Nvidia urges India to scale up AI infra Investment, calls Budget announcement massive opportunity'

Image Source : Asian Chronicle

A senior executive of NVIDIA said on Wednesday India needs to significantly scale up its investment in Artificial Intelligence (AI) infrastructure from the current $1.2 billion to align with global levels, describing the Union Budget’s 20-year tax holiday for foreign companies as a major opportunity to build foundational AI capacity.

, Shanker Trivedi, senior vice president, Enterprise Business at NVIDIA, said the tax incentive could help expand what he termed “foundational infrastructure” for AI in India, reported PTI.

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“Everyone of these global capability centres needs their own local AI factory from which they will take their data, their business processes, their IP, and convert it into intelligence. And, so, this (Budget announcement) is a very big opportunity here in India.

And as we describe, this is foundational infrastructure,” Trivedi said.

According to Trivedi, of the 2,000 global corporations worldwide, about 1,800 have a major global capability centre (GCC) in India. These centres currently employ over 2 million people, a number he said is expected to rise to 3 million in the near term.

He underlined that each of these GCCs would require dedicated AI infrastructure to process data and develop intelligence-led business processes, pointing to the need for higher capital allocation towards AI in the country.

India’s current AI investment stands at $1.2 billion, he noted, suggesting that scaling this up is essential for matching global benchmarks. The recent Budget announcement offering a 20-year tax holiday to foreign companies, he said, provides a structural incentive to expand AI-related infrastructure in India.