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

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 to 30 AI startups from its $75 million debut fund while giving portfolio companies preferential access to Nvidia’s technical expertise. The collaboration follows other India-focused efforts unveiled this week, including work with nonprofit AI Grants India to support early-stage founders and new ties with venture firms focused on the South Asian nation.

The flurry of activity comes as India hosts its AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, drawing top technology companies including OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang was slated to attend but skipped the event due to what the company called 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.

India has emerged as one of the fastest-growing pools of AI developers and startups, making it an increasingly important market for Nvidia as it looks to expand adoption of chips and computing software. By working more closely with founders at the earliest stages, the company is positioning itself to capture long-term demand as new AI-native companies scale.

Aakrit Vaish, founder of Activate, 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 aims to leverage that shift by connecting portfolio startups directly with Nvidia experts.

The VC firm, which Vaish describes as focused on “inception investing,” meets technical teams months before company formation and works 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, underlining the prominent network Activate is assembling around its early-stage strategy.

For Nvidia, the logic behind partnering with an early-stage venture firm is straightforward: the earlier it builds relationships with promising AI startups, the more likely those companies are to rely on its computing infrastructure as they scale. Vaish told TechCrunch that growing startups typically consume increasing amounts of AI compute over time, making early technical engagement valuable for the chipmaker as a way of generating future business.

Nvidia already has a sizable presence in the country through its Inception program, which supports more than 4,000 startups in India. This week, the chipmaker also expanded its local ecosystem ties, including partnerships 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 more than 10,000 early-stage founders over the next 12 months.

The company has also been broadening its startup outreach in India over time. 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, to provide strategic and technical guidance to emerging startups in the country.

Vaish said Activate’s partnership with Nvidia is designed to provide a more curated layer on top of the company’s broad-based Inception program, which serves thousands of startups globally. By serving as an early filter for high-potential technical teams, Activate aims to give its portfolio companies more direct, timely access to Nvidia’s engineering expertise.

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 U.S.