• Paras Chopra, after selling Wingify for $200M, is launching a foundational AI lab in India to develop advanced models and algorithms for global use.
• His initiative aligns with India’s AI push, focusing on efficiency-driven AI models amid the government’s mission to boost AI-driven applications.

Paras Chopra, the entrepreneur who recently sold his bootstrapped software company Wingify for $200 million, has announced his next venture in artificial intelligence (AI). Chopra plans to establish a foundational AI research lab in India, aiming to develop cutting-edge models and algorithms for global applications.

The initiative aligns with India’s increasing push towards AI advancements, particularly as the government accelerates its efforts to build indigenous AI models. The announcement follows the emergence of DeepSeek’s innovations in the global AI landscape, intensifying competition in the sector.

A foundational AI model serves as a large-scale base that can be adapted for various applications, from text generation and image creation to complex problem-solving. These models, pre-trained on vast datasets, function as a knowledge reservoir, enabling AI to process and generate meaningful insights across multiple domains.

Chopra, in a social media post, revealed that his lab is actively hiring technical talent to build an “efficient reasoning model from India.” He emphasized the importance of efficiency, given the financial constraints compared to Western AI labs that have access to billion-dollar resources.

“Unlike Western AI labs, we don’t have a billion dollars to spend on GPUs at the start, and it’ll force us to look at problems from a fresh perspective as we believe constraints lead to reasoning creativity,” he stated.

The Indian government’s AI Mission, launched ten months ago, focuses on AI-driven applications in key sectors like agriculture, healthcare, weather forecasting, and disaster management. IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnav recently announced that 18 applications have been identified to leverage AI for societal benefits. As part of this initiative, the government has invited startups and researchers to contribute to the development of foundational AI models using Indian datasets.

Chopra’s focus on reasoning AI is rooted in the belief that advanced problem-solving capabilities can drive economic growth and address some of the world’s most complex challenges.

“Problem-solving in hard, complex domains is the bedrock of all economic growth. And if we crack superintelligent reasoning models that think creatively, we will turbocharge growth and have a real chance of solving many of the world’s current unsolved problems like poverty, cancer, and the mysteries of the universe and consciousness,” he said.

Inspired by the efficiency of the human brain, Chopra envisions an AI model that operates with minimal energy and data, drawing parallels to human cognition. As India positions itself as a contender in the global AI race, his venture could play a significant role in shaping the country’s AI ecosystem and technological ambitions.

Editorial Note: This news article has been written with assistance from AI. Edited & fact-checked by Harshajit Sarmah.