CEO Bhavish Aggarwal announces Ola’s first AI chip for India, set for 2026 launch: Everything announced at Sankalp event | Mint

In a landmark event on August 15, Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal announced significant advancements in artificial intelligence and technology during the company’s ‘Sankalp 2024’ event in Bengaluru. The event highlighted the integration of Krutrim, an AI startup founded by Aggarwal, into Ola Electric and Ola Consumer (formerly Ola Cabs), along with the deployment of Krutrim’s advanced AI-powered customer service tool.

During the event, Aggarwal revealed plans to establish a 1-gigawatt data center facility by 2028, a significant increase from the current capacity of 20 megawatts. He emphasized that this expansion is part of a larger vision, particularly as the company also aims to launch India’s first homegrown AI chip, developed by Krutrim.

“Our goal is to push the boundaries of AI chip performance by 2028. This is a bold and ambitious project, but we are committed to delivering our first AI chip for India by 2026,” Aggarwal stated. The AI chips, named Bodhi-1 and Bodhi-2, will support over 10 trillion parameters, with Bodhi-2 expected to debut by 2028.

Krutrim has also made strides in the consumer market by launching an Android app for its AI chatbot in May. The chatbot, which entered public beta in February 2024, is designed to compete with major players like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot. It is powered by Krutrim’s multilingual large language models (LLM) and supports over 10 Indian languages, with plans to extend this to all 22 official languages by the end of 2024.

In a move to broaden its service offerings, Ola announced a rebranding of its ride-hailing division from Ola Cabs to Ola Consumer. This rebranding reflects the company’s expansion into a more comprehensive array of consumer services. Additionally, Ola Share, the popular ride-sharing service that was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been reintroduced in Bengaluru, with plans to expand to other cities soon.

Aggarwal also showcased Ola’s automated dark stores, small-scale warehouses designed for rapid delivery, where robots will manage the storage and retrieval of goods. These dark stores will be accessible to local Kirana shops and brands on the ONDC network, not just Ola’s platform.

Furthermore, the company introduced Ola Coin, a loyalty program to enhance customer engagement across its services.