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Microsoft Backs Sarvam AI to Scale Indic LLMs
Microsoft Backs Sarvam AI to Scale Indic LLMs
Indic Innovation Overload

Microsoft Backs Sarvam AI to Scale Indic LLMs

“Sarvam is India’s first provider of LLMs in Azure that offer Indic language support!"

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Key takeaways

  • Microsoft partners with Sarvam AI to enhance Indic language support in Azure.
  • Sarvam AI launches India’s first LLMs with a focus on Indic languages.
  • The startup's model demonstrates GPT-3.5-like performance, promoting accessibility for Indic languages.
  • Sarvam AI co-founders emphasize commitment to AI-driven growth in India.
  • Microsoft CEO praises innovative Indian startups during his Bengaluru visit.
5 min

On his visit to Bengaluru on February 8, Microsoft chief Satya Nadella announced that Azure is partnering with Sarvam AI.

"I am excited to see innovative startups in India. I had the chance to meet founders Pratyush and Vivek from Sarvam AI. Pratyush previously worked at Microsoft Research India. We are thrilled to support them and build out their LLM, which is trained on all Indic languages. The demo they showed me was tremendous,” said Nadella. 

“I am thrilled to partner with Dr.Vivek Raghavan and Dr.Pratyush Kumar, co-founders of Sarvam AI in bringing Indic voice large language model (LLM) in Azure. The collaboration reinforces our CEO Satya Nadella's commitment to enabling AI-driven growth and innovation in India,” said Anand Raman, partner AI & Research, Microsoft. 

“Sarvam is India’s first provider of LLMs in Azure that offer Indic language support! They are using Azure AI cloud infrastructure to train, host and scale their LLMs quickly,” he added. 

Indian AI startup Sarvam AI recently released OpenHathi-Hi-v0.1, the first Hindi LLM in the OpenHathi series. Developed on a budget-friendly platform, the model, an extension of Llama2-7B, boasts GPT-3.5-like performance for Indic languages. 

The Bangalore-based startup Sarvam AI also raised USD 41 million in a Series A funding round led by Lightspeed and supported by Peak XV Partners and Khosla Ventures. Sarvam’s objective is not just to build open-source Indic LLMs but to develop a platform and help build AI-powered applications that can be deployed at a population scale.

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