Nvidia is significantly intensifying its engagement with India's nascent artificial intelligence startup ecosystem, launching a series of partnerships this week to connect with founders at the earliest stages of their ventures, even before formal company establishment. This strategic initiative aims to forge relationships with future clientele within one of the world's most rapidly expanding developer markets.
A key component of this latest push is a collaboration with Activate, an early-stage venture firm. Activate plans to invest in approximately 25 to 30 AI startups from its inaugural $75 million fund, granting its portfolio companies priority access to Nvidia's extensive technical expertise. This partnership builds upon other India-focused endeavors announced recently, including efforts with the nonprofit AI Grants India to back early-stage founders and new alliances with venture capital firms specializing in the South Asian nation.
This surge of activity coincides with India's AI Impact Summit in New Delhi, an event that has attracted leading technology firms such as OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google. While Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang was scheduled to attend, he ultimately skipped the summit due to what the company cited as unforeseen circumstances. A high-level delegation, led by executive vice president Jay Puri, represented Nvidia, engaging with AI researchers, startups, developers, and partners on the ground.
India has emerged as a rapidly expanding hub for AI developers and startups, making it an increasingly vital market for Nvidia as the company seeks to broaden the adoption of its chips and computing software. By fostering closer ties with founders from the initial phases, Nvidia is strategically positioning itself to capture long-term demand as these emerging AI-native companies mature and scale.
Aakrit Vaish, founder of Activate, noted that Nvidia's historical engagement with Indian startups had been relatively hands-off compared to its approach in the U.S. However, he observed a deliberate shift, with the chipmaker now aiming to collaborate with founders much earlier in their developmental journey. Activate intends to capitalize on this change by facilitating direct connections between its portfolio startups and Nvidia's specialists.
Vaish characterizes Activate as focused on "inception investing," where the VC firm engages with technical teams months before a company is officially formed, providing close support as they develop. Its impressive roster of backers includes prominent figures such as venture capitalist Vinod Khosla, Perplexity co-founder Aravind Srinivas, Peak XV managing director Shailendra Singh, and Paytm CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma, underscoring the robust network Activate is cultivating around its early-stage investment strategy.
For Nvidia, the rationale behind partnering with an early-stage venture firm is clear: establishing relationships with promising AI startups at an earlier stage increases the likelihood that these companies will integrate and rely on Nvidia's computing infrastructure as they grow. Vaish conveyed to TechCrunch that scaling startups invariably demand escalating volumes of AI compute over time, making early technical engagement a valuable conduit for the chipmaker to generate future business.
Nvidia already maintains a substantial presence in India through its Inception program, which supports over 4,000 startups in the country. This week, the chipmaker further expanded its local ecosystem connections, forging partnerships with venture firms including Accel, Peak XV, Z47, Elevation Capital, and Nexus Venture Partners to identify and fund AI startups. Separately, it collaborated with AI Grants India, co-founded by Vaibhav Domkundwar and Bhasker (Bosky) Kode, with the goal of supporting more than 10,000 early-stage founders within the next 12 months.
The company has consistently broadened its startup outreach efforts in India over time. In November 2025, Nvidia joined the India Deep Tech Alliance, a consortium comprising U.S. and Indian investors such as Accel, Blume Ventures, Premji Invest, and Celesta Capital, established to offer strategic and technical guidance to emerging startups across the nation.
Vaish elaborated that Activate’s partnership with Nvidia is designed to introduce a more curated layer atop the company’s expansive Inception program, which serves thousands of startups globally. By acting as an early filter for high-potential technical teams, Activate aims to provide its portfolio companies with more direct and timely access to Nvidia's specialized engineering expertise.
This intensified activity highlights the escalating competition among global technology powerhouses to engage AI developers and startups in India, a country that has rapidly become one of the largest pools of technical talent outside the United States.
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