India's AI Chip Ambition: Surpassing NVIDIA? CEO's Bold Claims Raise Doubts

Artificial intelligence field welcomes new competitors.

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will meet the needs of AI models with trillions of parameters. Ola also emphasized that Bodhi 1 ### will surpass current state-of-the-art technology while consuming less power, which is one of the biggest challenges facing the AI processing field today. ### This technological advancement may accelerate the adoption of AI across various industries in India.

In addition, there are Ojas Edge AI chips designed for specific applications. The company can customize this chip for various application scenarios, including automotive, mobile, IoT, etc. Ola also plans to deploy this chip in its next-generation electric vehicles to help run charging, ADAS, and other systems. Of course, with the huge demand for AI computing, the company has also launched Sarv 1, using the Arm instruction set built for data centers.

The company disclosed in the demonstration that its prototype chip performs better in both performance and energy efficiency compared to NVIDIA GPUs. However, it is not clear which specific GPU they are comparing to, such as the RTX 4090 or H200, ### the only clear information is that its operating power is 200 watts. Additionally, the company did not specify where these chips will be manufactured.

Ola's ambitions don't stop at Bodhi 1. Ola stated that it will subsequently launch the Bodhi 2 chip, which is planned to debut in 2028. This more advanced chip aims to support training, inference, and fine-tuning of models with over 10 trillion parameters. The company envisions it as the cornerstone of exascale supercomputing.

Besides chips dedicated to AI, Ola is also developing general-purpose server CPUs based on ARM architecture and AI-rich chips for consumer devices such as smartphones and wearables.

According to public information, Ola Electric was founded in 2017. The founder is Bhavish Aggarwal, who was previously the co-founder of Ola Cabs and is also the founder of OlaKrutrim, a large language model AI company. Aggarwal graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology Mumbai, and his career began at Microsoft.

Bhavish Aggarwal is often referred to as the "Indian Musk", not only because of his outstanding achievements in the electric vehicle field but also because Bhavish Aggarwal's personal conduct and company management style are very similar to Musk's.

Over the past decade, some analysts, commentators, and media in India have used various labels and adjectives to describe this founder who started his Ola entrepreneurial journey in 2010. Some labels are "arrogant", some are "aggressive", and some describe him as a "workaholic", "maverick" or "persistent entrepreneur".

Facing various external voices, Bhavish Aggarwal said, "This is the price of having big dreams, and I'm speaking from the heart."

Like Musk, Bhavish Aggarwal also advocates a "wolf culture".

In an interview, Bhavish Aggarwal said, "Ola is not suitable for everyone, Ola is a paradise for ambitious people". Ola is the best place for those with ideals and aspirations. At Ola, they feel like fish in water because our company is full of entrepreneurial spirit. We don't over-manage employees. We tell them you must do this job, please complete it carefully."

"Once they complete the work, they will exceed expectations on their own. Ola is such a place, and such talents are the real reason why Ola shines. But in this process, some people find that this is not the most suitable place for them. It's okay, not every place is suitable for everyone, our culture is impact and goal-driven, oriented towards business building".

Ola's corporate culture is often written about and discussed. Bhavish Aggarwal admits that their culture is just like this. They are honest about their goals and don't hide this from anyone.

Bhavish Aggarwal says he openly tells employees "Don't expect to get a nine-to-five job here, if you want to take it easy, don't come to work at Ola. If you want to create a story that you'll remember for a lifetime and tell your descendants how you contributed to India's electrification and energy independence journey, then Ola is the place you should come. We are all honest people with honest goals."

Under Bhavish Aggarwal's leadership, Ola's development is thriving.

On May 6, 2019, Ola Electric announced that Ratan Tata, CEO of Tata Sons and Indian capital giant controlling 96 companies, had invested an undisclosed amount in the company. Previously, Mr. Tata had also invested in Ola's taxi business.

In May 2020, Ola Electric acquired Amsterdam-based electric scooter manufacturer "Etergo". Etergo manufactured a scooter using replaceable batteries with a range higher than standard. The design, technology, and efficiency of this scooter were impressive, so Ola Electric was also called the "Tesla of electric vehicles". In December of the same year, Ola Electric signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tamil Nadu government, announcing plans to build the world's largest two-wheeler factory (named Ola Futurefactory) in Tamil Nadu, costing 24 billion rupees (about 2.046 billion RMB).

In March 2022, Ola made a strategic investment in Israeli battery technology company "StoreDot". Ola Electric will adopt StoreDot's fast-charging battery technology and use it in future vehicles in India. StoreDot is a pioneer in extremely fast charging (XFC) batteries, overcoming two key barriers adopted by mainstream electric vehicles: range anxiety and long charging times.

After completing the acquisition and fully processing the paperwork, Ola Electric announced its entry into the electric vehicle field, not only to launch electric vehicles domestically but also to take them international. Subsequently, in June 2022, Ola Electric released its first electric car. Ola stated that its goal is to drive over 500 kilometers on a single charge and achieve 0-100 acceleration in just 4 seconds.

Although Ola Electric's development has been advancing rapidly, due to being in a rapid growth stage, Ola Electric's cash consumption is exceptionally large, and losses continue to increase. Electric scooter sales revenue is Ola Electric's only source of income, while battery sales revenue contributed only a small portion in the first quarter of this fiscal year.

In terms of operations, Ola Electric also faces other issues. Ola Electric stated that the components used in electric vehicles may have defects, quality issues, or supply interruptions or price increases, which would increase material costs and the price of Ola electric vehicles, affecting the expected manufacturing and delivery schedules, and to some extent reduce the company's revenue.

After Ola Electric announced the launch of its self-developed AI chip, it also sparked heated discussions on Indian social networks. Positive and negative voices are evenly matched.

Some netizens believe that Ola Electric has not achieved any major results in many years of establishment, and the release of chips is only for financing and hype.

A user named SaiSS961 commented under Ola Electric's chip release video on Youtube: "This company has received billions of dollars in funding but hasn't achieved anything, it's all just hype."

"Ola just buys external technology and brands it as its own. Like everything he's done so far, it's just copy and paste."

A user named arpanshome6328 said: "It looks like he quickly got bored with the existing business. He didn't make any profit from any business and jumped into the next one. They don't know what they want to achieve. Hope the investors' money is safe."

Another user named ankittiwari6716 also believes that Ola Electric should focus on its main business instead of wasting money on other things.

"Ola Electric better focus on electric vehicles instead of doing everything with a limited budget. This guy is deceiving innocent Indian people to raise his stock. His company got electric vehicle designs from Europe, made cosmetic changes and sold them to Indians. How can he bet on high-end chip manufacturing business? This is cheating everyone. Just talk to any former Ola employee you know and you'll find that hardly anyone uses krutrim AI, and even people in Bangalore prefer Rapido over Ola."

Market research and consulting firm MarketsandMarkets recently conducted a comprehensive analysis of the AI chip market, predicting significant growth between 2024 and 2030. According to their report, the global AI chip market is expected to reach $93 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 25.6%. This growth is driven by the increasing adoption of AI technology in various fields such as automotive, healthcare, and finance.

This huge cake has long been eyed by India. As part of India's transformation into a leading global economy