Quick Take
- Mumbai startup Novacore secured ₹44.6 crore ($5.1M) from Rashi Fincorp for India’s first NVIDIA Blackwell GPU cloud
- B200 servers deliver 2.3x higher performance and 25x greater energy efficiency than previous chips
- India’s AI-as-a-service market projected to grow from ₹7.84 billion to ₹31.94 billion by 2031
- Platform targets startups across India, U.S., and Middle East with cost-effective GPU access
- Deployment addresses critical bottleneck in AI development infrastructure
Mumbai-based Novacore Innovations has deployed India’s first GPU cloud powered by NVIDIA Blackwell servers in Hyderabad, backed by ₹44.6 crore in funding to democratize advanced AI computing across three continents. The company says the initiative aims to make cutting-edge GPU power accessible widely.
Novacore Innovations has reached a major milestone by launching India’s first GPU cloud infrastructure powered by NVIDIA Blackwell servers. The startup secured ₹44.6 crore in funding to transform AI computing access across India, the United States, and the Middle East.
Infrastructure Achievement Transforms AI Access
The Mumbai-headquartered startup was founded in late 2024 by San Francisco-based Ranbir Badwal and Mumbai-based Aryamaan Singhania. The company leverages India’s competitive electricity costs and skilled workforce to deliver cutting-edge GPU power. The ₹44.6 crore ($5.1 million) financing round was led by Rashi Fincorp with participation from U.S. and Abu Dhabi partners.
Co-founder Ranbir Badwal explains their vision: “Our goal is to democratize access to the most advanced computing. What some call an almost data centre bubble in India has kept hosting costs significantly lower than those in the U.S., where companies face bidding wars over data centres. This lets us offer American startups and researchers the GPU power they need.”
Technical Superiority Drives Performance Gains
Novacore’s platform runs on NVIDIA’s B200 server, delivering significant performance improvements over previous architectures. The system achieves up to 2.3 times higher peak performance and double the real-world AI speed compared to H100/H200 hardware.
The B200 features 192GB HBM3e memory with 8TB/s bandwidth, enabling trillion-parameter model training at unprecedented scale. Fifth-generation tensor cores and dual transformer engines accelerate training up to 3 times faster while boosting inference throughput by as much as 15 times. The system delivers 25 times greater energy efficiency, substantially reducing operational costs.
Market Growth Presents Massive Opportunity
India’s AI-as-a-service market shows explosive expansion potential. Market projections show growth from ₹7.84 billion in 2025 to ₹31.94 billion by 2031, representing a compound annual growth rate of 26.37%. Government initiatives including the National AI Mission and AI Centers of Excellence across healthcare, finance, agriculture, and education sectors accelerate this growth.
India’s AI adoption rate of 30% already exceeds the global average of 26%, demonstrating rapid embrace of transformative technologies. The integration of AI with 5G and IoT technologies, coupled with edge computing expansion in tier 2 and tier 3 cities, further broadens market reach.
Strategic Positioning Across Three Continents
Novacore targets three high-growth markets: India’s startups, U.S. innovators, and Middle East organisations. Customers benefit from lower costs, rapid provisioning, and scalable GPU power for generative AI, large language models, scientific computing, and real-time analytics.
To accelerate adoption, Novacore offers complimentary trials of Blackwell clusters to qualifying startups and research labs across all three regions. The company supports pre-built templates and custom configurations across major machine learning frameworks.
Co-founder Aryamaan Singhania notes: “From Mumbai’s leadership to Hyderabad’s operational excellence, we have built Novacore to combine technical depth, reliability, and reach. By focusing on efficiency and talent, we are delivering unmatched value to innovators in India, the U.S., and the Middle East.”
Competitive Landscape Creates New Dynamics
The deployment positions Novacore as a key player in the rapidly evolving global AI infrastructure arena, competing alongside NVIDIA’s broader ecosystem-building efforts in India. The company faces challenges including cross-border finance regulations, export-control compliance, privacy concerns, and intense AI market competition.
NVIDIA’s partnerships with Reliance Industries and Tata Communications for AI data centres powered by Blackwell and Hopper chips create additional competitive dynamics. Reliance’s 1-gigawatt AI data centre in Jamnagar, Gujarat, will use renewable energy, aligning with sustainability goals.
Global Implications for AI Development
Novacore’s initiative addresses a critical bottleneck in AI development: access to advanced computing resources without overseas infrastructure dependency. The Hyderabad deployment enhances domestic compute capacity, enabling research teams and enterprises to run sophisticated AI workloads locally.
For international businesses, India’s strategic location and renewable energy infrastructure make it an attractive hub for global AI workloads. As organisations seek to balance performance with sustainability, India’s AI data centres powered by Blackwell architecture become increasingly valuable.
Risk Considerations for Business Leaders
Business leaders should monitor potential regulatory challenges affecting cross-border AI infrastructure operations. Export control regulations and data privacy requirements may impact service delivery across multiple jurisdictions. The rapidly evolving AI chip landscape may require continuous technology upgrades to maintain competitive advantage.
The success of this initiative could establish India not only as a consumer of AI technology but also as a global exporter of AI innovation and infrastructure services, potentially shifting the global balance of computing power.
