Highlight
- Krutrim, an AI startup founded by Ola’s CEO, will design and launch its first AI chip by 2026.
- The first set of AI chips includes Bodhi 1 (for AI inferencing), Ojas (for edge AI solutions), and Sarv 1 (a general-purpose server CPU)1.
- Ola plans to build a 1-gigawatt data centre facility by 2028, expanding from the current 20-megawatt capacity.
Ola Electric, widely known across India for its electric scooters and ride-hailing services, has made a futuristic move into the AI hardware space.
The company announced its ambitious plan to develop a series of AI chips in a recent event.
This marks a significant step in India’s journey into the rapidly growing field of artificial intelligence.
Ola Cabs’ co-founder and CEO Bhavish Aggarwal founded an AI startup in December last year named Krutrim.
The startup now integrated into Ola Electric and Ola Consumer plans to design, build, and launch its first AI chip by 2026.
The announcement was made during the ‘Sankalp 2024’ event, where Aggarwal was in attendance.
At Ola Sankalp 2024, Aggarwal said: “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.”
The first set of AI chips, expected to debut in 2026, includes three models: Bodhi 1, Ojas, and Sarv 1. Bodhi 1.
The first AI chip to be designed and manufactured in India will be geared toward AI inferencing, making it suitable for large language models (LLMs) and high-performance vision processing.
Ola claims that Bodhi 1 is particularly strong in power efficiency, a crucial factor as AI systems demand more energy.
Ojas, the second chip in the lineup, is designed to meet the growing need for edge AI solutions.
It is adaptable for various uses across sectors such as automotive, mobile, and IoT.
Ola plans to incorporate Ojas into its future electric vehicles.
The chip would manage functions like charging optimization and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
The third chip, Sarv 1, is a general-purpose server CPU based on the Arm architecture.
It is aimed at supporting the increasing AI computing needs within the data centre industry.
At the same event, Aggarwal also announced plans to build a 1-gigawatt data centre facility by 2028.
This will significantly expand from the current 20-megawatt capacity.
“Our goal is to push the boundaries of AI chip performance by 2028. This is a bold and ambitious project, but we are committed to delivering our first AI chip for India by 2026,” Aggarwal stated.
“The data centre will be a computing and data storage powerhouse, enabling Krutrim to offer world-class AI services to India and the world,” the startup said in a statement.
This expansion is part of Ola’s broader vision, which includes launching India’s first homegrown AI chip, developed by Krutrim.
While Ola’s presentation at the event highlighted impressive performance and power efficiency benchmarks for their prototype chips, some significant details need to be addressed before comparing them to Nvidia GPUs.
The company didn’t disclose the specific Nvidia GPU used for comparison. Moreover, there was no mention of any details of where these chips will be fabricated.
Amongst other significant announcements made during the event, Ola Cabs is being renamed as Ola Consumers as the company widens its range of consumer services.
Krutrim has made a name in the consumer market by launching an Android app for its AI chatbot in May.
The chatbot, which entered public beta in February 2024, is designed to compete with major players like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and Microsoft’s Copilot.
With 6 lakh people watching live and close to 8000 people in attendance at the Ola Futurefactory, Sankalp 2024 was our biggest event ever. 💪Capturing some key highlights from the event across Ola Consumer, Krutrim and Electric below: pic.twitter.com/svrNeHmC7f
— Bhavish Aggarwal (@bhash) August 15, 2024
“With India’s first family of chips for AI, General Compute and Edge and key partnerships with Arm and Untether AI, Krutrim has today launched 50+ new services. And free till Diwali!” Aggarwal said in a post on X.
It is powered by Krutrim’s multilingual large language models (LLM) and supports over 10 Indian languages, with plans to extend this to all 22 official languages by the end of 2024.
Ola announced a rebranding of its ride-hailing division from Ola Cabs to Ola Consumer.
This rebranding reflects the company’s expansion into a more comprehensive array of consumer services.
Ola Share, the popular ride-sharing service that was suspended in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, has been reintroduced in Bengaluru, with plans to expand to other cities soon.
Aggarwal also showcased Ola’s automated dark stores, small-scale warehouses designed for rapid delivery, where robots will manage the storage and retrieval of goods.
These dark stores will be accessible to local Kirana shops and brands on the ONDC network, not just Ola’s platform .
The company introduced Ola Coin, a loyalty program to enhance customer engagement across its services.
FAQs
Q1. What new products did Ola announce in 2024?
Answer. Ola Electric launched its first three electric motorcycles under the Roadster series, with starting prices at ₹74,999.
They also unveiled new S2 and S3 e-scooter model ranges.
Q2. What is the Gen-3 platform introduced by Ola Electric?
Answer. The Gen-3 platform is a new base for Ola’s future electric two-wheelers, featuring improvements in battery, electronics, and motor setup.
It aims to integrate these components more efficiently and reduce the number of processors used.
Q3. What advancements are expected in Ola’s future electric scooters?
Answer. Ola plans to introduce new models in the S2 and S3 e-scooter lineups, including variants like S2 City, S2 Tourer, S2 Sports, and S3 Adventurer.
These models will be based on the new Gen-3 platform.
Q4. What are Ola’s plans for AI hardware development?
Answer. Ola announced its entry into the AI hardware space with plans to develop AI chips.
The first set of AI chips, including Bodhi 1, Ojas, and Sarv 1, is expected to debut in 2026.
These chips will cater to various AI applications, from inferencing to edge AI solutions.
Q5. Will Ola’s Bodhi 1 AI chip hit production line by 2026 ?
At the event, Ola announced its plans enter into the AI chip manufacturing sector.
The company is designing the Bodhi 1 AI chip that will handle Large Language Models (LLMs) and vision models.
The production of the AI chips is said to go into production by 2026.
The company is looking to develop a second AI chip called Bodhi 2 that is targeted to be ready by 2028.
Q6. Will AI-powered MoveOS5 operating system release in beta by Diwali?
Ola announced that its electric vehicles will be built on the Gen3 platform and will be powered by MoveOS 5.
Features of the OS are Ola Maps Navigation, A tire-pressure monitoring system (TPMS) alerts, cruise control and riding modes (Sport, Normal, Eco).
The Os will be released in beta by the end of October (Diwali).
Q7. What new AI-powered tools under its Krutrim AI division ?
Krutim’s AI Customer Care app to automate customer support services for businesses across various industries.
The app will support 22 Indian languages.
There’s another app, called Bhashik, which is a multimodal language hub capable of translating videos into multiple languages.
Aggarwal demonstrated the tool’s capabilities by live-streaming the launch event in several languages.
Also Read: CES 2023 – “Afeela” Sony And Honda’s First Ever Electric Car (EV) Coming in 2026
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