India is rapidly emerging as a key player in the global artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. It is seeing strong growth in both its AI workforce and how widely AI is being used. However, it trails in areas like private investments, patent output, research paper citations, and the creation of globally-recognized AI models, according to the eight edition of the Stanford University’s Human-Centred Artificial Intelligence (AI) Index 2025 report released on Monday.
In 2024, India became the second-largest contributor to AI-related GitHub projects, accounting for 19.9% of global contributions—just behind the US at 23.4% and slightly ahead of Europe at 19.5%. This signals India’s growing influence in the open-source AI community, a key driver of global innovation.
The AI workforce, too, is shifting in India’s favour. The country saw the highest year-over-year growth in AI hiring at 33.4%, followed by Brazil (30.8%) and Saudi Arabia (28.7%). Over the longer term, from 2015 to 2024, India also ranked second globally in AI skill penetration, with a score of 2.5, just behind the US (2.6), implying that AI skills among professionals in India are more than twice as concentrated as the global average.
However, the report cautions that LinkedIn-based hiring data may underrepresent countries like India, where platform usage varies and does not cover the full labour force.
On the AI investment front, governments worldwide are pouring resources into AI infrastructure. According to the report, Canada announced a $2.4 billion AI infrastructure package, France committed $117 billion, China launched a $47.5 billion fund for semiconductors, and Saudi Arabia’s Project Transcendence includes a staggering $100 billion investment.
The report acknowledges the Indian government’s $1.25 billion IndiaAI Mission, launched in March 2024, which aims to build out AI infrastructure with over 10,000 GPUs, create a national non-personal data platform, and support domestic AI models and startups. The initiative also emphasizes ethical AI and broader access, including expanding AI labs beyond India’s major tech hubs.
The remarks of global tech leaders supports these numbers. For instance, this January, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced a $3 billion investment to boost AI and cloud infrastructure in India. He also committed to training 10 million people in AI skills across the country by 2030, underscoring Microsoft’s long-term bet on India’s AI potential.
The following month, when OpenAI CEO Sam Altman visited India, he emphasized the country’s growing importance as the second-largest artificial intelligence (AI) market after the US. “Users here have tripled in the last year. The innovation happening, what people are building [in India], is really incredible,” he said, adding that OpenAI is eager to expand its presence. “I think [India’s AI program] is a great plan,” Altman noted during his visit.
Chinks in the AI armour
Despite these strides, India lags behind in some areas. In 2023, it accounted for just 9.2% of global AI research publications, compared to 23.2% from China and 15.2% from Europe. In Responsible AI (RAI) research, India contributed only 42 publications in 2024, fewer than the US (669) and China (268).
Moreover, in terms of private AI investment since 2013, India has attracted $11.29 billion, placing it behind major players like the US ($470.9 billion), China ($119.3 billion), and the UK ($28.2 billion). The number of newly funded AI startups also reflects this gap, with India launching 74 new AI companies, compared to the US (1,073), U.K. (116), and China (98).
One may recall that India ranked fourth in Stanford’s Global Vibrancy Tool 2024 (released in November 2024), which confirmed the US as the global leader in AI, ahead of China and the UK. The US has consistently outperformed nations in the quality of AI research, the number of machine learning models, private capital investment, and AI-related job creation. It invested $67.2 billion in AI private capital in 2023, significantly outpacing China’s $7.8 billion.
The US also led in developing notable machine learning models (61 compared to China’s 15) and had the most AI-related mergers, acquisitions, and startup activity. Additionally, it produced the most responsible AI research, highlighting its commitment to ethical innovation.
China held the second position but remains far behind the US. While it leads in AI-related patents, China lags in other critical metrics, indicating a growing gap between the two nations. This shift suggests the US is pulling away from its closest competitor, solidifying its dominance in AI development and application.
With the UK ranked third, the findings underscore the critical importance of sustained investment and innovation to remain competitive in the global AI race.
Consider this. In 2024, US private AI investment grew to $109.1 billion—nearly 12 times China’s $9.3 billion and 24 times the U.K.’s $4.5 billion, according to the AI Index. Generative AI (GenAI) saw particularly strong momentum, attracting $33.9 billion globally in private investment—an 18.7% increase from 2023.
Further, the US still leads in producing top AI models even as China is closing the performance gap (with models such as DeepSeek, Qwen and Manus), the report notes. Further, in 2024, US-based institutions produced 40 notable AI models, compared to China’s 15 and Europe’s three.
While the US maintains its lead in quantity, Chinese models have rapidly closed the quality gap: performance differences on major benchmarks such as MMLU and HumanEval shrank from double digits in 2023 to near parity in 2024. According to the report, model development is increasingly global, with notable launches from the Middle East, Latin America, and Southeast Asia.
According to the Vibrancy Tool, India is doing well in AI research and development (R&D), and in areas like journal and conference publications, citations, GitHub projects, AI skill penetration, hiring, and talent concentration. The country also ranks high in funding for AI startups and demonstrates strong interest in AI innovation.
However, India falls behind the top three countries in policy, governance, and infrastructure, lowering its overall score. This success reflects a thriving tech ecosystem driven by grassroots skill development and mentorship rather than government initiatives.
As India continues to invest in infrastructure, talent, and open-source development, the hope is that these initiatives will help expand its role in the global AI landscape.
