I moved back to India in 2013 with a simple mission: to build AI for the country. Since then, I've been incredibly fortunate to build Haptik, invest in 100 startups, co-create TEAM for Mumbai and contribute to our sovereign AI strategy through the IndiaAI Mission. Today, all of it comes together in my next act. Introducing Activate: India’s AI Venture Fund. We believe AI in India will be built by technical crack teams. Activate is created for such founders, engaging with them well before company formation and investing $500k-$3M at inception. With @177pc, the one & only person in the world I'd want to do this with. It starts here. It starts now. It's time to Activate.

Ok, so here is my take on the Fable ban, sovereign AI, Sarvam, etc. The event is interesting as it has implications from many perspectives. For AI users, it is clear that you should not confuse access with ownership, or adoption itself as advantage. And if the most significant tech differentiator you are leveraging has external control loops, then you have to accept you are vulnerable. For AI talent, it is now a precedent that you would be *seen* aligning to national interests more than company interests. And even if its just a whim for now, this trend will be hard to reverse as the world gets more automated… For AI labs, their offerings will be stratified - general purpose AI would be available as utility, but frontier AI would be gated. This is a fantastic business model for labs - *democratized* AI sucks in all the data liquidity of the world which is locked in higher margin frontier offerings. I think for the world to be a better place, all three of the above are bad vectors. We need to have more countries and companies owning their own destinies. And in the post AI world, that means being able to use and improve AI systems within their own perimeters - what one may call Sovereign AI. At Sarvam, Sovereign AI in India was the founding thesis a couple of years back, and continues to remain the core operating principle. From our vantage point, it is super clear that India will build, leverage, and create massive business value and societal impact with sovereign AI. The following is precisely how we at Sarvam are contributing to make that happen.

Looking for a team of 10-12 cracked researchers & engineers to build a new AI Lab in India. Funding and compute secured. DMs open.

This is absolutely crazy. Over the past couple of years, I would often argue for sovereign AI by saying "what if one day the US decides to turn the switch off?" Had never imagined that day would come so soon. Sovereign AI has moved from a narrative to the largest business opportunity of our times.

my man keeps ai research papers in his library legend @177pc

Last week, we kicked off the Activate Fellows Program with an evening of conversations, curiosity, and community. We started with a fireside chat featuring our mentor @SriramRajamani, followed by a panel with: • @dementorSam (Co-founder & CTO, Dashverse) • @DevanshGhatak (Co-founder & CTO, Simplismart) • @177pc (Partner, Activate) • @GarvitJuniwal (Head of R&D, Glean) From building AI startups to navigating early-stage growth and venture capital, the discussions were packed with insights. The real highlight, though, was meeting our Fellows, their thoughtful introductions and sharp questions made it clear that this is an exceptional cohort. A great evening of learning, networking, and pizza. Excited for what the next few months have in store. @aakrit @177pc

I am very excited to announce the inaugural batch of Activate Fellows. These 14 students have been selected from over 600 applicants to intern at India's premier AI startups. Amazing to see the power of the ecosystem come together to shape India's future AI leaders :)

Always fun chatting with India's favorite shark and OG Mumbai founder @AnupamMittal @mumbai_tech_

Manish Gupta, Senior Director at Google DeepMind India, sits down with Aakrit Vaish and Pratyush Choudhury at Mumbai Tech Week for a rare on-record conversation about the frontier AI research happening out of Bangalore. Gupta makes a pointed case against the narrative that India lacks AI research talent: a team of roughly 75 researchers, a third of them fresh out of college, producing work on par with the best in the world and feeding directly into Gemini. The conversation goes deep on what DeepMind India actually builds, why Gemini is considered the most efficient model on the planet, and what India needs to become a research leader rather than a fast follower. In this conversation, they go deep on: 0:00 Intro: Manish Gupta of DeepMind India at Mumbai Tech Week 1:23 What DeepMind India does, and why it's a "mystery" 1:59 The three roles: languages, efficiency, continual learning 2:19 The Haryanvi demo at Google I/O and the cultural playbook 2:38 Making models efficient: from mobile to servers 3:25 Matryoshka transformers and why nested models win 4:20 Why Gemini is the most efficient model on the planet 5:11 Continual learning: using Gemini to improve Gemini 5:50 Google's India plans: consumers, agents, enterprise, government 7:44 Government officials live-coding with AI Studio and NotebookLM 8:30 The India AI talent debate and how the team is structured 10:25 Why India lacks courage and R&D investment, not talent 11:16 DeepMind's global labs and India's outsized impact 13:15 On-device AI: Gemma 3n and 4n 14:08 The headline: 75 world-class researchers in Bangalore 14:58 25 of the 75 are fresh out of college If you're a founder, builder or researcher thinking about AI, frontier models, or India's place in global AI research, this one's for you. @aakrit @177pc @GoogleDeepMind @GoogleIndia @ManishGuptaMG1

we make & break 100s of commitments on @whatsapp every week "i will send it" "let me get back to you" then they slowly drop so i built Commit it understands conversations like a human. what you owe. what people owe you. automatically closes loops mitensampat.github.io/commit

Major congrats to my partner @stevejang on his 3rd @Forbes Midas List appearance! He’s been all-in on AI since 2019—tracking computer vision use cases, the rise of GANs and then diffusion models, AI hardware, and how early language models would reset the world. By 2022, when we went all in, we’d already spent years studying, investing, learning the hard way, and building. We don’t organize around chasing hot deals; we organize around deep, thematic research and portfolio support. That sometimes means exploring sectors until the insight and conviction are earned, then betting with high energy on that work. That’s how investments like @Perplexity happen a few months after their launch, or @fal before “generative media” (coined by @Burkay Gur, @Gorkem Yurtseven, and Steve in our office) was even a thing. Before this cycle, investments like @Uber, @Coinbase, @Color, and @tonal (all early contrarian bets at the time) were the inspirations for his style. I’m biased, but Steve’s combo of product obsession and real go-to-market help is rare; most early-stage folks only have one of those gears. At @KindredVentures, we love the early stage. It’s still where the biggest impact in venture gets made, and where we’ll keep doing our work. Grateful the market recognizes the craft here, and even more excited about what’s next. Huge congrats to Steve, and thank you to our founders for the mountains you move every day.⚡️⚡️⚡️ forbes.com/profile/steve-jan…

Didn’t need a stage. Just a mic and @AnupamMittal🎙️ The crowd gathered, the energy was unreal - Activate Signal at Mumbai Tech Week just had one of its biggest moments. 🔥 Stay tuned for the insane podcast episode drop 👀 @aakrit @177pc

Aaryan sat out of placements at IIT Bombay last yr to build Terrastack He is an IIT-B CSE '25 graduate & partnered with Prof Sohoni to build Spatial Intelligence for BFSI in India Terrastack is incubated at SINE at IIT Bombay Aaryan did a live demo at MTW 2026 earlier today

Met all the ex-@haptik gang with @aakrit at the @OpenAI x @ActivateSignal x @peakxvpartners Really great to see what these guys have gone on to build 🚀 It's amazing to see Tech scene in Mumbai blooming ❤️ Also, the squad was In as well @OpenAIDevs @sequoia @mumbai_tech_ @viveky259259 #Mumbai #BuildInPublic #ai #openai #codex

Great turnout in Mumbai yesterday with founders, engineers, operators, and builders. Alongside @OpenAI and Activate (@ActivateSignal), we hosted conversations on engineering workflows, agentic systems, infrastructure, investing, and founder journeys. Key takeaways from breakout sessions designed for founders and engineers: • AI adoption is moving past the “capability gap” narrative into real deployment • Codex Agents SDK workflows are already automating finance, ops, HR, sales, and marketing • The best automations start small: inbox cleanup, meeting prep, summaries, reporting, spreadsheet cleanup • AI agents that self-evaluate through tests, screenshots, and benchmarks are dramatically reducing developer intervention #AIEngineersDay 1/n

We put a podcast studio in the middle of MTW and got @waitin4agi_ to anchor it. This one with V Vaidyanathan, MD & CEO of @IDFCFIRSTBank. He's all Founder Mode and all in on AI, what an amazing conversation.

🤝CM Devendra Fadnavis presided over the signing and exchange of an MoU between the Government of Maharashtra (Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority) and Tech Entrepreneurs Association of Mumbai (TEAM) at 'Mumbai Tech Week 2026'. This strategic MoU will establish a knowledge partnership to position the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) as India's AI, Innovation & Startup Capital and a Global Urban Innovation Hub. Co-Chairs of the Tech Entrepreneurs Association of Mumbai (TEAM) Governing Council, Aakrit Vaish and Harsh Jain, members of the 'TEAM' and other dignitaries were present. 🤝 मुख्यमंत्री देवेंद्र फडणवीस यांच्या प्रमुख उपस्थितीत 'मुंबई टेक वीक 2026' कार्यक्रम येथे महाराष्ट्र शासन (मुंबई महानगर प्रदेश विकास प्राधिकरण) आणि टेक आंत्रप्रेन्योर्स असोसिएशन ऑफ मुंबई (TEAM) यांच्यामध्ये सामंजस्य करार करण्यात आला. या करारामुळे मुंबई महानगर प्रदेशाला (एमएमआर) भारताची कृत्रिम बुद्धिमत्ता (AI), नवोपक्रम आणि स्टार्टअपची राजधानी तसेच जागतिक स्तरावरील नागरी नवोपक्रम केंद्र म्हणून विकसित करण्यासाठी ज्ञान सहकार्य प्राप्त होईल. यावेळी टेक आंत्रप्रेन्योर्स असोसिएशन ऑफ मुंबई (TEAM) गव्हर्निंग कौन्सिलचे सह-अध्यक्ष आक्रित वैश आणि हर्ष जैन, 'TEAM' चे सदस्य आणि इतर मान्यवर उपस्थित होते. @Dev_Fadnavis @aakrit @harshjain85 @mumbai_tech_ @MMRDAOfficial #Maharashtra #DevendraFadnavis #MumbaiTechWeek #MTW2026

🔸CM Devendra Fadnavis in a fireside chat at the 'Mumbai Tech Week 2026' on 'Maharashtra's AI vision'. 🔸मुख्यमंत्री देवेंद्र फडणवीस यांचा 'मुंबई टेक वीक 2026'मध्ये 'महाराष्ट्राज् एआय व्हिजन' या विषयावर संवाद. 🔸मुख्यमंत्री देवेंद्र फडणवीस इनका 'मुंबई टेक वीक 2026' में 'महाराष्ट्राज् एआई विजन' इस विषय पर संवाद। 🕥 10.25am | 29-5-2026📍BKC, Mumbai | स. १०.२५ वा. | २९-५-२०२६📍बीकेसी, मुंबई. @Dev_Fadnavis @aakrit @harshjain85 @mumbai_tech_ #Maharashtra #DevendraFadnavis #MumbaiTechWeek #MTW2026

Kicking off Mumbai Tech Week with the one and only @Dev_Fadnavis. We spoke about LLMs, AI agents, responsible AI, AI policy & more. Yes, this was the content of the fireside chat with the Maharashtra CM :) @harshjain85