India is experiencing a surge in AI activity, marked by significant investments, a major summit, and the debut of the country's first AI company on the public market, though not without challenges. The AI Impact Summit, a four-day event attracting 250,000 visitors, is underway, while Fractal Analytics, the first Indian AI company to IPO, faced a muted debut, and a new AI lab, Flapping Airplanes, secured $180 million in seed funding.
The AI Impact Summit, hosted this week, aims to attract more AI investment to India. The event features prominent figures from major AI labs and Big Tech, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Nvidia, Microsoft, Google, and Cloudflare. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, and Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei are among the attendees. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to deliver a speech with French President Emmanuel Macron. Furthermore, India has earmarked $1.1 billion for a state-backed venture capital fund, which will invest in artificial intelligence and advanced technologies, according to source 4.
Fractal Analytics, the first Indian AI company to go public, listed on Monday at 876 per share, below its issue price of 900. The stock closed at 873.70, down 7 from its issue price, giving the company a market capitalization of about 148.1 billion (around $1.6 billion). This valuation is a step down from Fractal's recent private-market highs, having raised about $170 million in a secondary sale in July 2025 at a valuation of $2.4 billion, according to source 3.
Meanwhile, Flapping Airplanes, a new AI lab, is focusing on less data-hungry ways to train AI. The lab, founded by brothers Ben and Asher Spector, and Aidan Smith, secured $180 million in seed funding. "We want to try really radically different things," said one of the co-founders, according to source 1.
In related news, power constraints are becoming a limiting factor in scaling AI data centers. Peak XV Partners has backed C2i Semiconductors, an Indian startup developing power solutions to address energy losses and improve the economics of large-scale AI infrastructure. C2i has raised $15 million in a Series A round, bringing the startup's total funding to $19 million. Electricity consumption from data centers is projected to nearly triple by 2035, according to a December 2025 report from BloombergNEF, as reported by source 5.
Amidst the excitement, some experts remain cautious. Source 2 highlights skepticism surrounding OpenClaw, an AI project, with some questioning its significance despite initial hype.
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