AI is India’s ‘next oil’: Global tech expert
Washington, Feb 14 (IANS/WISHAVWARTA) Artificial intelligence is at an inflection point globally, and India must treat data as its “next oil” if it wants to lead the next industrial revolution, Sunil Pal, Head of AI GPU Allocation at AMD, said ahead of the India AI Impact Summit in New Delhi.
“2026 is the year for AI,” Pal told IANS, describing the technology wave that began with ChatGPT’s release in 2022 as “like the fourth industrial revolution.”
He said countries are racing to capture value in a market he described as projected to reach $1.7 trillion by 2031.
“Everyone is trying to see how can they capitalise on this overall AI,” he said, adding that “data is the key.”
According to Pal, the summit in India comes at a time when governments and companies worldwide are evaluating how to scale AI infrastructure and applications.
He outlined three areas where India stands out: “AI talent and engineering depth,” a “global digital backbone,” and a shift “from services to strategic innovation hub.”
India offers “one of the largest AI and digital engineering talent pool,” he said, enabling enterprises “to scale AI rapidly and cost-effectively.”
He pointed to the country’s role in managing global enterprise platforms, cybersecurity operations, analytics, and AI development. Indian technology firms, he said, are “brightly positioned to know what the trend is changing, and they can change the trend accordingly.”
India is also evolving “into AI research, product engineering, semiconductor design, and global capability centers,” he said. With “1.2 billion people,” he added, the country has a built-in scale advantage.
But Pal warned that infrastructure will determine whether India can convert that potential into leadership.
“In order to build the data centers, the power is the bottleneck,” he said. “The main thing is the electricity, and high-quality electricity is the key.”
He said governments must think long term and invest in reliable, affordable energy, including hydro, nuclear, wind, and solar power. “It’s not a short-term thing,” he said. Countries need to “look at this holistically and look at the long term and play the long game.”
Building data centers requires large-scale planning, land acquisition, and regulatory approvals. Pal noted that even in the United States, projects require rounds of public consultation and clearances. Similar processes in India will take time.
Still, he emphasised that compute infrastructure is not tied to a single geography. It is “agnostic to a location,” he said, and can be deployed in one part of the country and used elsewhere, or even globally, through the internet.
On global competition, Pal said the United States currently has a stronger lead in AI, but “China is not behind.” He recalled visiting Beijing in 2018 and being struck by the level of automation and AI deployment even then.
China’s approach, he said, reflects a “very concentrated effort.” But he stressed that AI remains in its early stages everywhere. “AI is right now at the beginning,” he said, adding that countries from Singapore to Dubai and across Europe are moving quickly.
For India, the challenge is to stay alert and engaged. “You have to keep your eyes and ears open,” he said, and assess how AI can be integrated into an economy that is already among the world’s largest.
Pal also pushed back against the idea that AI is merely a cost-cutting tool. “It is becoming a revenue enabler through the hyper personalization, through predictive insights and digital business models,” he said.
In healthcare, he explained, AI can narrow down options and accelerate research cycles. Experiments that once required large teams and extended timelines can now be streamlined. “The machines are learning too fast,” he said.
At the same time, he cautioned that data quality matters. “If you provide the bad information, you get the bad information out.”
Looking ahead five years, Pal said he does not have a “crystal ball,” but believes the technology is still in its “infancy stage.” He compared AI’s current moment to the early days of the steam engine, the internet, and the smartphone.
Each of those innovations, he said, reshaped industries and created trillion-dollar companies. AI, in his view, represents a similar turning point.
“If you don’t adopt, you will be behind and you don’t want to be behind,” he said.
Calling the India AI Impact Summit “a good thing,” Pal said New Delhi’s push into semiconductors and digital infrastructure is long overdue. He drew a parallel to oil-rich economies of the 20th century.
“Data is the next oil,” he said. With the right ecosystem, talent and infrastructure, he suggested, India can turn that resource into long-term economic strength.
The India AI Impact Summit follows similar gatherings in London and France and comes as governments worldwide accelerate investments in AI chips, data centers and research. India has rolled out incentives for semiconductor manufacturing and digital infrastructure, aiming to position itself as a major player in the global AI value chain.
As geopolitical competition intensifies over advanced technologies, New Delhi is seeking to leverage its engineering base and digital scale to emerge as a central hub in the next phase of AI-led growth.
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