Nvidia deepens early-stage push into India’s AI startup ecosystem

Source: TechCrunch

Partnership with Activate

Nvidia is stepping up efforts to court India’s artificial intelligence startups earlier in their lifecycle, unveiling a string of partnerships this week aimed at reaching founders even before their companies are formally established. The push is intended to help the AI chipmaker cultivate relationships with future customers in one of the world’s fastest‑growing developer markets.

The latest move comes through a partnership with early‑stage venture firm Activate, which plans to back about 25–30 AI startups from its $75 million debut fund while giving portfolio companies preferential access to Nvidia’s technical expertise. Activate’s founder Aakrit Vaish said Nvidia’s engagement with startups in India has historically been relatively light‑touch compared with the U.S., but the chipmaker is now looking to work with founders much earlier in their journey.

Activate describes its approach as “inception investing,” meeting technical teams months before company formation and working closely with them as they grow. Its backers include venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, Perplexity co‑founder Aravind Srinivas, Peak XV managing director Shailendra Singh, and Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, underscoring the prominent network the firm is assembling around its early‑stage strategy.

AI Impact Summit Context

India is hosting its AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, drawing top technology companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang was slated to attend but skipped the event due to “unforeseen circumstances.” A senior delegation led by executive vice president Jay Puri attended in his place, meeting AI researchers, startups, developers, and partners on the ground.

Nvidia’s Existing Presence in India

Nvidia already supports more than 4,000 Indian startups through its Inception program. This week the chipmaker also expanded its local ecosystem ties, partnering with venture firms such as Accel, Peak XV, Z47, Elevation Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners to identify and fund AI startups. It separately teamed up with AI Grants India—co‑founded by Vaibhav Domkundwar and Bhasker (Bosky) Kode—to support over 10,000 early‑stage founders in the next 12 months.

In November 2025, Nvidia joined the India Deep Tech Alliance, a consortium of U.S. and Indian investors (including Accel, Blume Ventures, Premji Invest, and Celesta Capital) that provides strategic and technical guidance to emerging startups in the country.

How Activate Enhances Nvidia’s Reach

Vaish explained that Activate’s partnership with Nvidia adds a more curated layer on top of the broad‑based Inception program. By acting as an early filter for high‑potential technical teams, Activate can give its portfolio companies more direct, timely access to Nvidia’s engineering expertise—positioning Nvidia to capture long‑term demand as AI‑native companies scale.

Competitive Landscape

The stepped‑up activity underscores intensifying competition among global technology firms to court AI developers and startups in India, which has become one of the fastest‑growing pools of technical talent outside the United States. Early technical engagement is valuable for Nvidia because growing startups typically consume increasing amounts of AI compute over time, turning early relationships into future business opportunities.