India is moving to reduce its reliance on Amazon, Microsoft, and Google for artificial intelligence computing by partnering with the United Arab Emirates. Under a deal signed on May 15, 2026, Abu Dhabi-based G42 will deploy 64 supercomputers to India, according to a report by Rest of World.
The initiative aims to establish AI infrastructure that operates under Indian regulatory control, rather than through the cloud platforms of U.S. providers. A G42 unit will oversee the installation, operations, and maintenance of the hardware, with technical support provided by California-based chipmaker Cerebras.
Currently, India relies heavily on U.S. technology for its national AI program, which utilizes 34,000 Nvidia processors with plans to reach 100,000 by the end of the year. The country has already secured over $45 billion in infrastructure commitments from Microsoft, Google, and Amazon, making the G42 deal a strategic addition to its computing landscape.
Cameron Kerry, a former acting secretary at the U.S. Department of Commerce and fellow at the Brookings Institution, described the move as a calculated strategy for digital autonomy. "This is an example of India’s pragmatic approach to AI sovereignty, using the power of its scale to adapt what’s available from other countries, whether AI leaders like China and the U.S. or others, to adapt to its own needs," Kerry told Rest of World.
The partnership utilizes hardware from Cerebras, a company known for designing massive AI chips that consolidate functions typically requiring thousands of smaller, wired processors. While Nvidia remains the industry standard for training large models from scratch, Cerebras hardware is specifically optimized for running AI applications, which aligns with India’s goal of deploying AI across public sectors like healthcare and agriculture.
Chris Miller, a professor at Tufts University and an expert on global semiconductor competition, noted that G42 faces a significant hurdle in competing with established U.S. tech giants. Because Amazon, Microsoft, and Google provide integrated ecosystems of software, developer tools, and customer support, G42 must offer a comparable service layer to succeed.
"A key question will be whether they can offer competitive software and other services to their data-center customers," Miller said.
India’s Centre for Development of Advanced Computing will manage the data, ensuring it remains under local governance. While G42 declined to disclose the financial terms of the agreement, the company confirmed that India is the first nation to join its "Intelligence Grid," a global network of government-owned AI facilities. G42 is currently in discussions with other unnamed governments to expand the network.
