Krutrim, the AI startup founded by Bhavish Aggarwal, the co-founder and CEO of Ola Cabs, has announced its ambitious plans to design, build, and launch its first AI chip by 2026. The announcement was made at the Ola Sankalp 2024 event, where Aggarwal revealed that the first family of chips under development will include “Bodhi” for AI, “Sarv” for general compute, and “Ojas” for Edge computing. Additionally, the company plans to launch Bodhi-II by 2028, as part of its long-term vision.
In a significant move to support these developments, Krutrim has entered into strategic partnerships with global chip-makers Arm and Untether AI. These collaborations are expected to accelerate the company’s chip design and manufacturing capabilities.
Speaking at the event, Bhavish Aggarwal emphasized India’s potential to lead in the AI sector, stating, “India has a unique opportunity to become a global superpower in technologies of the future such as AI. India being the source for 20 per cent of the world’s data and home to one of the largest tech talent pools, is fully equipped to lead the AI wave.”
Expansion of Data Centre Capacity
In addition to the chip development, Krutrim has ambitious plans to scale up its data centre capacity. The company announced that it aims to increase its current capacity from 20 MW to 1 GW by 2028. This expansion is expected to cater to the growing demand for AI and cloud computing services in India and beyond.
A few months ago, Aggarwal made headlines by moving Ola’s workloads from Microsoft Azure to its own Krutrim Cloud. Today, he highlighted the platform’s rapid growth, stating, “Over 50 new services have been launched on Krutrim AI, making it ready for the majority of applications required by Indian developers.”
Krutrim Cloud: A Growing Ecosystem
Krutrim Cloud is rapidly expanding its services to cover a wide range of domains, including infrastructure, developer platforms, data platforms, AI models, AI platforms, and AI applications. The company’s AI ecosystem is already being utilized by Ola Electric and Ola Cabs, demonstrating its potential across various sectors.
Aggarwal also shared impressive statistics on Krutrim’s adoption: “Over 25,000 developers have used Krutrim Cloud, and over 10 million users have used the Krutrim chat app. Additionally, 250 billion API (application programming interface) calls have been made across products since its launch in early 2024. And, over 1 trillion tokens have been generated on Krutrim in the last six months.”
In a bid to attract more developers and businesses, the company announced that cloud services worth ₹100 crore will be offered for free until Diwali.
Ola Cabs Renamed as Ola Consumers
In a major rebranding effort, Aggarwal announced that Ola Cabs will now be known as Ola Consumers, as the company expands its range of consumer services. This shift reflects Ola’s ambition to diversify beyond mobility and cater to broader consumer needs.
“Our ambition with this company is to truly make consumption accessible to every Indian, and this is going beyond mobility,” said Aggarwal.
As part of this expansion, Ola Cabs has relaunched its Ola Share feature for ride-hailing services, starting in Bengaluru. The service will be rolled out to other cities in the near future.
Furthermore, Aggarwal introduced a new loyalty program called Ola Coins, which will be applicable across several Ola services. Recognizing the growing demand for quick commerce, Aggarwal also announced the launch of an automated warehouse, which will be available to brands on ONDC, highlighting the company’s commitment to leveraging automation for scale.