Globally, GPUs are a rare and costly resource as computing power underpins all artificial intelligence operations. Krutrim Cloud will offer GPUs as a service on its AI computing infrastructure, enabling enterprises and developers to train and tune their models, announced Krutrim co-founder Bhavish Aggarwal.
Improve your technical skills with valuable skills courses
| University offer | Course | Website |
|---|---|---|
| IIT Delhi | IITD Certificate Program in Data Science and Machine Learning | Visit |
| Indian Business School | ISB Professional Certification in Product Management | Visit |
| WITH | MIT Leadership and Technology Innovation | Visit |
Aggarwal claimed that it would be the cheapest cloud offering in the world. When asked about the pricing, the company’s head of strategy Ravi Jain told the media that the pricing is under consideration and that the first 1,000 developers will get free access to the GPU at a price of up to Rs. 10,000 GPU usage. He did not reveal the number of GPUs the company will employ.
However, Jain said that the full launch of cloud services will be “in a few weeks.” “Our developers will have access to the most advanced processors such as H100, H200 and Blackwell… We are talking to all three: Nvidia, AMD (Advanced Micro Devices) and Intel,” he said.
The company has a data center in Bengaluru and more centers will be set up in many other locations depending on availability and demand, Jain said.
Yotta Data Services offers GPU usage for $1.8 per hour for multi-year contracts and charges $5 per hour for GPU usage for short-term usage. Last year, it announced that it would gradually import 24,000 H100 GPUs along with the L40S. The first tranche of them arrived in March. That same month, the government announced it would import 10,000 GPUs and make the infrastructure available to startups and researchers.
In addition to providing enterprises, developers and researchers with access to its computing power, Krutrim will offer access to its immense language models and other open source models hosted in the cloud. The company’s models can be used to develop products and applications using software development kits (SDKs), the statement said. At the same time, Krutrim launched standalone mobile applications for the Krutrim AI assistant that are used by end consumers, similar to the applications offered by OpenAI and Microsoft. The company also announced a range of application programming interfaces (APIs) for developers to support location-based services such as routing, navigation and traffic updates, among others.
Krutrim is also in talks with foundries in Taiwan and the US to produce its own chips. Last December, the company said it would release an artificial intelligence-centric system (SIP) by the end of 2025, with prototypes ready by mid-2024. SIP consists of individual chips housed in a single package, each with specific functionality, usually aimed at saving space and installation costs. This development is part of the company’s ambition to build an indigenous artificial intelligence-enabled supercomputer within a few years, Aggarwal said at the time.
The company is also working on various hardware solutions for AI data centers, including cooling systems by immersing servers in liquids used for insulation and cooling.
Earlier this year, Krutrim became India’s first unicorn in 2024 after raising $50 million at a valuation of $1 billion. The company raised capital from investors led by the Matrix Partners India venture capital fund. Unicorns are privately held startups valued at least $1 billion.
Meanwhile, two other Aggarwal-led companies, Ola Electric and Ola Cabs, are heading to public exchanges. While Ola Electric awaits market regulator approval after submitting draft listing documents delayed last year, Ola Cabs is undertaking a restructuring and exiting international markets in a bid to improve profitability ahead of a market listing.
On April 29, ET reported that Ola Cabs would see a job cut of at least 10%, affecting around 200 employees, while its chief executive Hemant Bakshi quit the company just three months after publicly announcing his appointment.
