Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman engaged with global CEOs, pension fund managers, and institutional investors during her visit to San Francisco, highlighting collaborative opportunities in sectors such as energy, sustainability, and digital innovation. Among the key topics discussed were India’s proposed Rs 1 lakh crore ($12 billion) private sector–driven research, development, and innovation corpus, and the GIFT-IFSC initiative.
Accompanied by Finance Secretary Ajay Seth and India’s Ambassador to the US, Vinay Mohan Kwatra, the Finance Minister listened to the perspectives of various stakeholders on India’s ongoing economic reforms and shared her insights on the existing policy landscape. The international investors conveyed a strong interest in building deeper and broader investment ties with India, and provided suggestions on improving the investment environment. The Minister acknowledged their feedback and thanked them for their valuable inputs.
During her one-on-one meetings with prominent industry leaders, Sitharaman delved into potential collaborations in artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and digital infrastructure.
Jonathan Siddharth, CEO of Turing, expressed his ambition for India to lead the global AI revolution. He emphasized the potential of working with Indian talent and institutions to create a sovereign AI model that could become a benchmark for the world. In response, the Finance Minister underscored India’s robust AI policy framework and encouraged Siddharth to explore collaborative ventures with Indian partners.
Debanjan Saha, CEO of DataRobot, recognized India’s significant potential to emerge as an AI powerhouse. He showed interest in contributing to India’s AI Centre of Excellence, which has recently been allocated Rs 500 crore under the Union Budget for 2025–26. The Finance Minister elaborated on India’s consistent investments in building its digital infrastructure, including a Rs 10,300 crore allocation for the IndiaAI Mission. She also spoke about initiatives like BharatGen and Sarvam-1 for developing AI language models, and the Srijan Centre for Generative AI at IIT Jodhpur.
Sitharaman further highlighted how the proposed Rs 1 lakh crore innovation corpus could offer private sector entities substantial opportunities in research and development.
In her meeting with Anjney Midha, General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and VMware CEO Raghu Raghuram, Sitharaman emphasized the technological transformation taking place in India, driven by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s strategic vision. She encouraged them to explore partnership possibilities across sectors within the AI ecosystem.
Another notable engagement was with Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud, and his team. The conversation revolved around the Digital India initiative and the rapid evolution of India’s digital infrastructure, which has positioned the country as a global leader in digital adoption. Kurian commended the progress made under PM Modi’s leadership, especially in AI, and expressed interest in further connecting India to global networks through undersea and terrestrial cables.
Kurian also highlighted Google Cloud’s commitment to sustainability, reiterating the company’s goal of operating entirely on carbon-free energy across its global data centres and offices by 2030. He outlined Google Cloud’s upcoming investment plans for India as part of their broader growth strategy.
