Alibaba’s AI Chip Shake-up and India’s Missed Chance
Alibaba has just made a bold move—launching a homegrown AI chip that could rival Nvidia. What makes it even more dramatic? This chip is compatible with Nvidia’s ecosystem. Think of it as making a “desi substitute” that still works with the existing machines everyone’s already using. Overnight, Alibaba’s shares jumped 10–13%.
Why is this big? Because Nvidia is the heart and soul of AI. Every ChatGPT answer you read, every AI video you see, is powered by Nvidia chips. If Alibaba can offer a cheaper, equally powerful alternative, the balance of global tech power shifts.
Here’s the twist: about 30% of Alibaba is owned by foreigners. So in a way, this isn’t just china rising—it’s also a story of global investors cheering the arrival of a new Nvidia rival.
Now, where does india come in? india has nearly 20% of the world’s chip design talent. But our cities simply don’t support high-intellectual work. One heavy rain in gurgaon yesterday, and the entire city froze. Offices shut, roads drowned, power lines went down. Imagine asking chip designers to stay late and solve billion-dollar tech problems in such chaos!
This is why india urgently needs something new: a “Basic Convenience Department” to ensure water, electricity, and transport never collapse, and an “Aesthetics Department” to make cities livable and inspiring. Only then can india move from being the “brains for hire” to being the place where the world’s most powerful chips are built.
The brains exist. The question is—will the environment rise to match them?
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