India at risk of AI blackout? Why Bernstein wants India to have its own DeepSeek

Bernstein analysts warn that India's reliance on foreign AI models exposes it to strategic risks, including potential US export controls that could cut off access to frontier technologies. The report highlights India's deep technology dependence across compute, operating systems, cloud and software, and notes that the India AI Mission of around INR 104 billion over five years earmarks less than 20 percent for foundational models, with about 44 percent directed toward compute imports. The brokerage argues India needs an indigenous foundational model breakthrough, similar to China's DeepSeek, to avoid decades of dependency on foreign AI infrastructure.