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India has a new AI unicorn, and it comes with a much bigger story.
What's happening: HCLTech has acquired a 10.46% stake in Sarvam AI for $150.7 million, leading the startup's latest funding round as a strategic investor.
The deal values Sarvam AI at $1.5 billion, officially pushing it into the unicorn club. The company has raised $234 million so far in the round, with plans to raise up to $300 million.
Breaking it down: as part of the investment, HCLTech will support the startup's efforts to build next-generation AI models focused on areas such as agentic AI, coding assistants and cybersecurity.
The investment comes just over two years after Sarvam raised $41 million across its seed and Series A rounds.
Why does this matter: most AI companies build applications on top of existing models. Sarvam is trying something far more different and new.
The startup is building a full-stack AI business, developing its own models, running the infrastructure needed to power them, and creating products for businesses and governments.
Its models are designed specifically for Indian languages and local use cases, with deployments already spanning banking, insurance, government services and defence.
The bigger theme: for years, businesses around the world have relied heavily on AI models developed by a handful of companies in the US. But recent events have highlighted the risks of that dependence.
Last week, Anthropic disabled access to some of its latest AI models after receiving directions from the US government to restrict usage by foreign nationals due to national security concerns.
The episode served as a reminder that access to cutting-edge AI technology can be influenced by geopolitical decisions.
That's why countries around the world are increasingly talking about "AI sovereignty", the ability to build, own and control critical AI infrastructure rather than relying entirely on overseas providers.
