The 13 bidders for the GPU tender were picked from a list of 19 applicants. The technical evaluation committee had evaluated these bids based on the eligibility and technical criteria.
The eligible bidders were invited to present their proposed solutions during the technical presentation stage. Among them are Jio Platforms, Tata Communications, Yotta Data Services, E2E Networks (in partnership with L&T), Ctrl S Datacenters, and NxtGen Datacenter and Cloud Technologies.
Following Monday’s technical presentations, commercial bids will be opened only for the technically qualified bidders. The empanelment will be valid for 36 months, with the option to extend for an additional 12 months.
The other shortlisted bidders are CloudThat Technologies, CMS Computers, Hostin Services, I2k2 Networks, Locuz Enterprise Solutions, Orient Technologies and Vensysco Technologies.
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Most of the eligible bidders and the ministry did not respond to ET’s request for comment.A senior executive of one of the companies said off-the-record that MeitY will check the bidders’ scorecards on Monday. “Some weightage will be given to the technical presentation. This will be part of the evaluation. Once this is done, the committee will decide how many marks each one is getting,” the person said, requesting not to be named. “If the total marks cross the minimum eligibility criteria, which is 70 or 75 marks, only then will their commercial bids be opened. Then the L1, L2 and L3 bidders will come into picture.”
The empaneled companies will need to offer compute-as-a-service at the price quoted by the L1 bidder.
“We are one of the leading players in the data centre and cloud space in terms of revenue, number of customers, types of services, offerings, capability and number of data centres across India,” the executive cited earlier said. “Even if the L1 bidder’s quoted price is too low, we have an option to move out. Not just technology, companies must look at investments too.”
He pointed out that the request for empanelment (RFE) does not come with a business commitment from MeitY. The companies must install a minimum of 1,000 GPUs within six months of getting empanelled. Applicants have already submitted a bank guarantee of a suitable amount for the anticipated GPUs.
“We know of several companies which did not bid because the RFE does not assure business from startups,” the executive said.
The executive of another eligible bidder told ET, “Our chances of emerging as an L1 bidder are fairly good, but we don’t know the strategy of other players. Now, super big-shots with deeper pockets are in the fray…Jio is known to take aggressive calls.”
Jio did not respond to ET’s request for comment.
An executive of another bidding company said, “We’re putting our best foot forward. It is hard to say what our chances of emerging as the L1 bidder are.”
ET had reported on December 25 that bidders have offered a variety of GPUs from Nvidia, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), and Intel. However, a majority of them are from Nvidia, followed by AMD and then Intel, sources said.
AS Rajgopal, chief executive of NxtGen Datacenter and Cloud Technologies, one of the bidders, told ET, “We showcased our diamond cooling technology. What sets us apart is the diamond cooling technology and the diversity of our GPUs from Nvidia, AMD and Intel. Kavita Bhatia (COO, IndiaAI Mission) was also interested in the AI models we offer, four of them are free to use. One of the models is for chartered accountants which is being trained on GST law and corporate law.”
Akash Systems recently signed a contract with NxtGen. Akash’s diamond cooling is a cooling solution for the semiconductor sector and integrates with existing thermal management technologies. Synthetic diamond is a thermally conductive material. At 2200 W/mK, a diamond’s thermal conductivity exceeds that of copper by five times. Akash has an approach to couple diamond materials to semiconductor chips, thus accelerating heat extraction from hot GPU chips where temperatures can reach 90°-100°C.
Bhavesh Goswami, founder and chief executive, CloudThat, in response to ET’s queries in a statement said, “CloudThat is an advanced tier Amazon Web Services (AWS) partner. These GPUs, managed through AWS, are expected to consist of 70% Nvidia H100 GPUs, with the remainder being custom versions tailored to the project’s specific needs.”
CloudThat was among the corporations selected during the initial onboarding Request for Empanelment (RFE).
“Earlier today, we delivered our technical presentation, which was well-received. It was an experience to showcase our technical capabilities,” he said
This project seeks to enable widespread access to AI Compute and Cloud Services.
Goswami expressed confidence in the quality of his company’s proposal. “We look forward to the next steps, including the financial evaluation,” he said.