Vijay Shekhar Sharma Offers ₹2 Crore to India’s AI Model Builders

Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has offered ₹1 crore to ₹2 crore of personal funding to Indian entrepreneurs willing to build their own artificial-intelligence models.

Speaking at Cypher 2026 in Bengaluru, Sharma said he would personally back founders taking on the challenge of developing foundational AI technology in India. (⁠Economic Times )

The proposal adds a founder-led funding angle to India’s growing debate over whether the country should build its own AI models rather than primarily developing applications on foreign systems.

Vijay Sharma AI Funding Targets Model Builders

The idea behind Vijay Sharma AI funding is straightforward.

India already has a large ecosystem of companies building applications on top of global foundation models.

Sharma believes more Indian entrepreneurs should attempt to build the underlying technology itself.

He offered personal cheques of ₹1 crore to ₹2 crore to founders willing to take on that challenge. (⁠Economic Times )

The proposal is relatively small compared with the capital required to build frontier AI systems.

However, the symbolic significance is larger.

India Wants More Control Over AI

The debate is not simply about national pride.

Owning AI models can provide control over infrastructure, data, model behaviour and deployment.

For India, local models can also be designed around Indian languages, local business requirements and domestic regulatory conditions.

Sharma argued that Indian companies have become highly capable at building applications using foreign models, but need greater ambition around owning foundational technology.

That creates a different entrepreneurial challenge.

Founders must think about research, compute, data and model training rather than only product development.

Capital Is Not the Only Constraint

Building a competitive AI model requires enormous technical resources.

Compute capacity is critical.

So are research scientists, training data, engineering teams and infrastructure.

Sharma argued that capital and resources are available, while the bigger issue is the willingness to commit to difficult long-term projects. (⁠Economic Times )

That is an important entrepreneurial point.

Some technology opportunities require years of development before commercial returns become visible.

Investors therefore need patience as well as conviction.

Paytm Has Already Built Internal AI Systems

Sharma’s argument also draws on Paytm’s own experience.

He said the company has built internal risk and fraud systems rather than relying entirely on external AI technology.

He has also previously discussed optimising a much larger model into a smaller model designed for Indian-language use and running it on Paytm’s own machines. (⁠Economic Times )

That experience provides context for his argument.

The objective is not necessarily to reject foreign models.

Instead, India could use global models while simultaneously developing domestic alternatives.

The Founder Opportunity Is Getting Bigger

The Vijay Sharma AI funding offer arrives as India’s AI ecosystem becomes more competitive.

Global companies are investing billions in Indian AI infrastructure.

Indian founders are building applications across finance, healthcare, education, agriculture and enterprise software.

The next opportunity could be deeper in the technology stack.

Founders who can build efficient models for Indian languages, specialised industries or constrained computing environments could create valuable businesses.

Flairius News will continue following this development through its ⁠entrepreneurship coverage.